Gurgaon: An operator from the Common Services Centre (CSC) and his associate were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly obtaining a death benefit amount of Rs 2.2 lakh by fraudulently furnishing a forged death certificate of a job card holder under MGNREGA.
The two accused colluded with officials from the labour department, and an investigation is underway to identify them, police said, adding that the duo had forged three more death certificates but were not able to obtain their benefits.
In 2022, CSC operator Jabir and his associate Arbaz Khan contacted Hanif (50), a labourer with
MGNREGA job card
who lives in Dalawas village near Punhana. They promised to enroll Hanif as a beneficiary for the state govt’s
Kanyadan Yojana
. Under this scheme, a registered worker receives an amount of Rs 51,000 three days before the marriage of a daughter, and the amount is given till the marriage of three girls.
“Arbaz collected my PAN, Aadhar, Job Card details, and my wife Chandni’s Aadhar card in January 2020 on the pretext of enrolling me under govt schemes and helping me with the benefits. In 2022, he took me to Jabir in Nuh and collected my fingerprints promising to enroll me in the Kanyadan scheme. Some job card holders in my village received the amount from the scheme, but I did not. When I contacted Arbaz, he said my application was rejected,” said Hanif.
“Last year in Aug, I checked the govt website and found that my job card was cancelled as my death certificate was submitted online. Rs 2.2 lakh was also credited by the govt into a bank account which was not mine,” Hanif added.
Hanif filed a complaint, and a case was registered in Aug 2024. After a detailed probe, police arrested the duo on Wednesday, and they are currently in police remand.
The cybercrime police in Nuh registered a case under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
“The accused prepared fake death certificates of MGNREGA job card holders. Then, they opened bank accounts in the name of a family member of the job card holders and applied for death benefits using the forged certificates. The accounts were linked with the mobile numbers of the accused. With help from some labour department employees, the duo embezzled the money. Inspector Vimal Rai’s team recovered two mobile phones and two SIM cards from the accused. They are in police remand,” Nuh police spokesperson Krishan said.
“The two men are being questioned to gather details of the volume of the scam, including identifying the labour department personnel involved in the case,” said a senior police official.