Panchayat chief’s husband held for mass wedding scam

GREATER NOIDA: The husband of a panchayat chief in Greater Noida has been arrested along with two others in connection with a case in which several couples had married again at a mass wedding for the sake of gifts worth around Rs 35,000.
After at least 10 couples were found to have married again, the district administration lodged complaints against six persons. On Tuesday, three of the accused, including the pradhan’s husband Dharmendra Bhati, were arrested. The case was filed after a formal complaint from social development officer Anand Kumar Singh.

Under the Mukhyamantri Samoohik Vivaah Yojana, the government had organised the wedding of 66 couples last month and given them gifts and cash worth Rs 35,000 each. Many of the couples had told TOI they had been lured by the panchayat chief’s husband.

The villagers said on Tuesday that though there were at least 10 couples who had married again, complaints had been lodged only against those who have kids. The FIR also mentions the chief of the Cheeti-Nangla panchayat, Babita Bhati. The villagers said there were many more couples who had married again for the sake of money and gifts but hadn’t been mentioned in the complaint. Many of those couples feature in photographs taken during the event.

Among the couples seen in the photos are Mohit and Pinky, who got married in November 2017. But their family denied this when the chief development officer visited their house on Monday. There were several couples who had fled the village, sources said.

DM BN Singh said prima facie, four of the 10 couples were found to have married previously. Asked about the other couples, some of whom can be seen in photographs, he said they were being “verified”.

The DM said he had sent a report to the state government about the involvement of two officials from the administration in identifying the couples for the mass wedding.

“It will not be correct to name them as of now,” he said. Singh also did not confirm if the officials were from the office of the social development department or the chief development officer.