MGNREGA ‘scam': Khabad brothers sent to judicial custody, five others get bail
A court in Dahod on Friday sent Balvantsinh Khabad and Kiran Khabad — sons of Gujarat Minister of State for Panchayat, Bachubhai Khabad — to judicial custody, after the end of their police remand in two separate cases. The cases were lodged against them at Dahod B Division police station, following their bail in the first FIR of alleged irregularities in the works carried out under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in district's Devgadh Baria and Dhanpur talukas.
The development came a day after a court on Thursday granted regular bail to five others arrested in the first FIR of April 24. Those who have been granted bail include then Taluka Development Officer (TDO) of Devgadh Baria, Darshan Patel; Rasik Rathwa — the current Deputy District Development Officer (DDO) of Dahod, who was then the TDO of Dhanpur taluka; the accountants of the MGNREGA branch, Jayveer Nagori and Mahipalsinh Chauhanand, and technical assistant Manish Patel.
The alleged scam — spanning from April 2021 to December 2024 — came to light when the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) Director BM Patel discovered a large number of irregularities in the payments made for incomplete projects under MGNREGA in two villages in Devgadh Baria and one village in Dhanpur taluka, where several metres of road was left unconstructed but payments were made to 'unauthorised agencies', using forged completion certificates of the work.
While 14 persons were arrested in connection with the FIR and sent to judicial custody at the end of their police remand, the Khabad brothers were granted regular bail on May 29, after the Dahod Sessions court rejected the police revision petition challenging the bail order. Within minutes of their release from Dahod sub-jail, Kiran Khabad was arrested in a second FIR filed by DRDA in-charge Director while Balvantsinh was arrested in another FIR two days later.
On Friday, investigating officer DySP Jagdishsinh Bhandari told The Indian Express, 'Both Balvantsinh and Kiran Khabad have been sent to judicial custody on Friday. A total of five accused were granted bail. The remaining nine accused are in judicial custody… The probe is on in the case of other accused involved in the case, who are yet to be arrested.'
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