‘Cashing in’ on welfare schemes: Lawyer, four women arrested

LUCKNOW:Five people, including a lawyer, were arrested in Mahanagar area here on Friday for allegedly being involved in a racket concerning government welfare schemes.

Reportedly, the accused siphoned off money meant for benefiting underprivileged people, using forged documents and fake candidates.

Police said the racket was operational for the past six years, during which the fraudsters had obtained welfare funds worth several crores.

Cops said they also suspected the involvement of some government employees who were responsible for physically verifying the beneficiaries of the welfare schemes.

Inspector Mahanagar police station Vikas Pandey said, “One Bodhlal, who is a lawyer, was the mastermind of the racket. His accomplice, Ayesha Khatoon, helped him in making applications under different welfare schemes, using forged identity proofs and other required certificates. They along with three other women -Suman, Kaushlaya and Kusuma -- were arrested in the matter.”

The inspector said the fraud was detected by some senior officials of the social welfare department when they noticed that a large number of beneficiaries belonged to one particular locality and area of Lucknow. “They immediately suspected a racket and approached the police to probe the matter,” he said.

Pandey said the police recovered at least 128 passbooks of different banks from the accused, which showed transactions worth around ₹ 47 lakh.

Elaborating on the modus operandi, he said that the mastermind exploited loopholes in the physical verification process.

“Bodhlal and Ayesha Khatoon applied in schemes concerning widows and marriage of underprivileged people run by the social welfare department, as well as some of those run by the backward welfare department,” said the inspector.

“They used photographs of different women and names of different women to commit the fraud. Forged documents of non-existing and some real people were prepared using stamps of various departments,” he added.

“The mastermind revealed during interrogation that the fraud had been going on for six years and that they had earned several crores using the trick.

He has already closed down many of the bank accounts that he had used to get the welfare funds,” said Pandey.