Congress leader Heera Jotwa, son held in ₹7.3 crore MGNREGA rural jobs scheme case

A special investigation team (SIT) is probing the fraudulent diversion of funds meant for rural development projects in Hansot, in Gujarat’s Bharuch district

Published on: Jun 28, 2025, 12:22:05 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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Ahmedabad: Congress leader Heera Jotwa, his son Digvijay, and MGNREGA operator Rajesh Tailor were arrested on Friday for their alleged involvement in financial irregularities amounting to ₹7.3 crore in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, which provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to rural households, police said.

Started in 2005, MGNREGS was envisaged as a demand-based rural asset creation scheme to provide livelihood security through 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to every rural household. (Representative photo)

A special investigation team (SIT) is probing the fraudulent diversion of funds meant for rural development projects in Hansot, in Gujarat’s Bharuch district, an officer said.

The financial irregularities, uncovered by the district rural development authority (DRDA), involved fake work completion certificates and forged documents, with funds transferred to accounts linked to the Jotwa family and others. “Congress leader Heera Jotwa, his son Digvijay, and MGNREGA operator Rajesh Tailor were arrested on Friday,” Bharuch superintendent of police (SP) Mayur Chavda said.

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi alleged political vendetta and demanded a judicial probe, while also calling for action against government officials who sanctioned the flawed works.

Started in 2005, MGNREGS was envisaged as a demand-based rural asset creation scheme to provide livelihood security through 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to every rural household. It has been described as a poverty alleviation, social security, infrastructure building, and participatory development programme. However, various studies have also pointed out leakages and failings in the programme due to poor implementation.

Jotwa was summoned from his home in the Gir Somnath district on Thursday and brought to Bharuch, where a special SIT team has been probing the misuse of funds allocated for road construction and development works in 56 villages across the Amod, Jambusar, and Hansot talukas, a police officer requesting anonymity said.

Also Read: Men dressed up in sarees to claim MNREGA funds in place of women

The irregularities came to light following a detailed audit that found glaring discrepancies in MGNREGA-funded projects, including the use of machines instead of manual labour, the supply of substandard materials, and inflated billing by contractors. Police said more arrests may follow in the coming days.

Jotwa, a prominent leader from the Saurashtra region, had contested the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections from Keshod and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Junagadh.

The Bharuch district administration lodged an FIR on May 30 after receiving the audit findings, and an SIT was formed to investigate the matter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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