3rd accused held, SIT finds Dahod link in probe trail

Suthar is believed to be instrumental in forging the government identification card for Rajput as well as other government documents, used to siphon off Rs 4.18 crore from the state government since 2021.

As per the investigation trail, the accused are said to have used the same modus operandi in the Dahod district to dupe the state government.

Suthar, a resident of Manjalpur in Vadodara city,  was arrested on Thursday based on revelations made by Rajput and Saiyyad, who were also taken for “reconstruction” and “physical check” of 12 of the 93 projects that were “approved” under various rural development schemes of the government since 2021, as per officials.

Police Inspector Vinod Gavit of the Local Crime Branch (LCB), Chhota Udepur, who is part of the SIT, told The Indian Express, “Our teams took the two accused to 12 locations where they have shown projects… At five places, we found something on the ground while at seven places there was nothing… The accused have also revealed that Rajput was using the same fake identity of a government executive engineer in the Dahod district. We will begin the detailed investigation in this matter to ascertain if they have also siphoned off funds there before informing the Dahod district police if a separate offence needs to be registered there.”

The SIT said that Suthar allegedly “typed the forged government documents” in the office of Saiyyad and was instrumental in then forwarding them to the Project Administrator’s office in Chhota Udepur after having Rajput sign the documents as “Executive Engineer”. Gavit said, “Suthar not only forged the government identity card that Rajput has used to pose as a government executive engineer but he also sat in the office of Abu-Bakr Saiyyad and typed the documents they needed to carry out their scams. He would then get Rajput to sign on the documents and take them to the Project Administrator’s office in Chhota Udepur.”

According to another official of the SIT, government employees of the Project Administrator department in the earlier years have been issued summons to join the probe. “We have issued notices to two government employees of the Project Administrator’s department to appear before the SIT for recording statements as their role in the case cannot be ruled out… The forged document proposals put forth by the bogus office were ‘approved’ by the then officer in charge. We have also issued a summon to the officer but he is yet to join the probe,” an officer said.

Investigators, who began physical verification of the “projects” for which the accused siphoned off grants, ran into token ‘structures’ built on the ground for the purpose of attaching

photographs.

At Chilarvant village of the district, the accused allegedly showed a 2016 check dam as a “newly constructed” check dam in 2021 to siphon off lakhs of rupees. In several other villages, the accused had “beneficiaries” of the ‘Mahila na ghar angne pivana pani’ (Drinking water in the courtyard of a woman) scheme construct the concrete base at their own expense and then installed plastic water tanks as against RCC tanks that are to be built under the original project.