New Delhi, Nov 12: Six members of a gang have been arrested for allegedly enlisting people in the Delhi government’s pension schemes for widows and disabled through forged documents and charging a fee for it, police said on Friday. Of the six accused, Balam (33), Mubarak (37), Rajesh Kumar (25) and Jai Prakash (33) were contractual employees at the Social Welfare, Women and Child Development Department’s office at Lajpat Nagar, they said.
According to the police, a woman, in her complaint, stated that she had approached two persons, Riyasat (35) and Sahil (30), running a private office at Jiatpur village, around and-and-half years ago seeking financial help as her husband had lost work due to the Covid pandemic. The duo told her that the Delhi government was running a scheme for the poor and she can get Rs 2,500 per month under it, but registration for it required Rs 15,000, Aadhar card, PAN card and two photos, police said. The woman was told that when she starts getting Rs 2,500, she can repay the registration fee in instalments. She started receiving the amount from January. The victim later came to know the amount was being credited under a widow pension scheme, a senior police officer said.
It came to her knowledge that many people were receiving the same amount from the Delhi government under the scheme in a similar manner, the officer said. During the investigation, Riyasat was questioned and 180 applications, 144 Aadhaar card and pan card copies with mobile phone numbers of applicants supposed to have applied for pension scheme were recovered, the officer said. Six persons involved in the scam have been arrested, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Monika Bhardwaj said. Riyasat and Sahil had hired agents who lured people in getting pensions from the Delhi government under various schemes. The agents took those people to Sahil and Riyasat’s office where they were told to deposit their Aadhaar card, bank passbook and other IDs so that their pension can be applied online, she said.
The applicants were told that the pension credited for the first 10 months will be kept by the accused as they are helping them in getting the money, police said. Sahil and Riyasat had connived with the employees at the Office of District Officer, Social Welfare and Women and Child Development, in Lajpat Nagar, they said. They used to forward the forms for Balam and Mubarak to clear the same in exchange of money. The accused used to upload forged death certificates and disability certificates to clear the application for sanctioning the pension, police said. Riyasat is also drawing handicap pension himself and his wife is drawing widow pension as well, police added.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment