Hyderabad: Fake certificates, fake ID proofs, fake wedding cards and a bank account... these are the tools used by fraudsters to cheat the government, which subsidises marriages for the poor.
The Telangana state government’s Kalyana Laxmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes are aimed to benefit poor families from SC and ST communities and Muslims. The Chief Minister later extended Kalyana Lakshmi to other communities too. Under the schemes, the bride’s family gets Rs 51,000 for organising the marriage.
Following several complaints and allegations the Chief Minister directed the ACB to probe the matter. The ACB has identified 57 frauds and registered cases across the state. Special teams identified hundreds of frauds by people using different modus operandi.
ACB officials suspect that there are some individuals running the racket at the district level and have launched a search. Officials found that in many cases the culprits withdrew the scheme amount from banks without the knowledge of the bride or bridegroom.
A 24-year-old woman from First Lancer near Masab Tank got married on June 9, 2013. Her personal data was later stolen and application made for the Shaadi Mubarak scheme. A fake wedding card which stated that she got married on January 7, 2015, along with fake ID proofs with a Saroornagar address were submitted.
Though the Haj House officials did not verify the application, it was approved and the culprits withdrew the amount from the Pahadisharif branch of Indian Bank. Ranga Reddy district ACB DSP M. Prabhakar said, “The bride told us that she did not submitted any application for Shaadi Mubarak.
We suspect that a gang is behind the scam,” he said. In Armoor of Nizamabad district, ACB officials even found a printing press used exclusively for printing fake wedding cards for the schemes.
MeeSeva Centres resort to fleecing
MeeSeva organisers exploit poor Muslims by taking advantage of their illiteracy and lack of awareness of Shaadi Mubarak scheme.
During a joint operation of ACB and the Charminar division police recently, a MeeSeva organiser at Bahadurpura, Mohammad Zahed Ali, was arrested for cheating a woman out of Rs 31,000 abusing the Shaadi Mubarak scheme.
South Zone DCP V. Satyanarayana had informed the media that Ms Fouzia Begum (40) had heard about the Shaadi Mubarak scheme and had approached the MeeSeva organiser Zahed in February 2015 for funds for her daughter’s marriage.
As per the latter’s directions, she paid Rs 2,000 towards MeeSeva fee and applied for the Shaadi Mubarak scheme for her daughter Ms Summaiya Begam.
The marriage took place on May 17, 2015 at Sikander Function Hall, at Aurangabad.
Later, the MeeSeva organiser informed Ms Fouzia Begum that the bride would have to visit the bank. The woman brought her daughter to the Bank of Baroda branch at Attapur junction. After taking her signatures, Zahed told the victim to visit his MeeSeva office the next day.
When the victim approached him the next day, Zahid gave her Rs 20,000 and said the remaining amount would not be sanctioned as the marriage had been organised at Aurangabad.
After a complaint by the victim, Bahadurpura police registered a case and arrested the accused in a joint operation. The Charminar division and ACB teams seized 20 more Shaadi Mubarak applications and passbooks of applicants from the MeeSeva centre.
