₹84L MNREGA funds siphoned off in Sitapur; 12 booked

Among those booked are four village pradhans of Mahmudabad block, three panchayat secretaries, four village rozgar sewaks and a technical assistant, said senior police officials on Monday.

District authorities in Sitapur have lodged an FIR against 12 people for siphoning government funds to the tune of ₹84.44 lakh allocated for MNREGA works.

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Among those booked are four village pradhans of Mahmudabad block, three panchayat secretaries, four village rozgar sewaks and a technical assistant, said senior police officials on Monday.

They said the FIR was registered after district magistrate Abhishek Anand launched a probe into the allegations of siphoning of the MNREGA funds in Pachdevra Chaubey, Siharukheda, Madaripur and Behati of Mahmudabad block of Sitapur. They said the probe was conducted by chief development officer (CDO) Nidhi Bansal and the FIR was lodged based on her report’s findings.

A senior police official stated that Sarvesh Kumar, Poonam Devi, Kamini Yadav and Sobaran Lal (the pradhans of Pachdevra Chaubey Sarvesh Kumar, Siharukheda, Madaripur and Behati villages, respectively); panchayat secretaries Pradeep Kumar Chowdhary, Baby Yadav and Manoj Kumar Yadav; rozgar sewaks Raj Kishore, Rajiv Singh, Suresh Chandra Verma and Ramesh Chandra and technical assistant Virendra Kumar Verma had been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (fraud), and 467, 468 and 471 (forging documents) as the alleged crime took place before July 1, when the new Bharatiya Nayay Sanhita was enforced.