BAREILLY: District magistrates of Bareilly, Badaun, Pilibhit and Shahjahanapur are hunting for ‘brides’ – women who submitted fake documents to get government assistance for their “wedding”. The social welfare department has found that women who were widows or grandmothers, too, had robbed the government exchequer, seeking assistance for marriage when they had little to do, in reality, with getting married!

During the scrutiny of government records of previous years, it was revealed that many young women, who are entitled for government assistance of Rs 10,000 for their marriages under a welfare scheme for the minority community, submitted fake documents to claim the money and then made off.

In fact, many of them never entered the wedlock. However, they got the funds released in their names in connivance with unscrupulous employees at the tehsil and gram sabha levels, said district minority welfare officer Jagmohan Singh.

Majority of cases were reported from Baheri, Faridpur and Meergunj tehsils were local touts were found to be running full-fledged rackets involving preparation of fake documents and facilitating government assistance for girls from the minority community, many of whom never existed or were already married, said a senior official.

Alarmed at reports of such a large scam in the state family benefit scheme, the divisional commissioner has asked district magistrates of the affected districts — Bareilly, Badaun, Pilibhit and Shahjhanapur — to conduct a physical verification of every woman who got married with government assistance in the past three years.

Teams of district officials led by naib tehsildars would now visit houses of all the beneficiaries, verify their income certificates and ask them to submit proofs of their marriages. The officers would also cross-check their wedding dates with people in their neighbourhood. It will also be verified if the marriages took place in the same year in which they claimed assistance.

Divisional commissioner Vipin Kumar Dwivedi told TOI: “I have issued instructions to the DMs of all the four districts to get to the root of the scam and trace all the beneficiaries. If any government employee, including lekhpals and kanungos, is found involved, he would not be spared. It is a serious offence and FIRs would be lodged against beneficiaries who submitted fake documents and falsely claimed assistance.”

Notably, local authorities, including the sub-divisional magistrate, Meergunj, had recently busted a major racket involved in seeking financial assistance under government scheme for widows. It came to light that women donned widow’s attire to fool authorities and claim benefits.

