BHOPAL: In Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni district -- famous as the land of The Jungle Book's serpent Kaa -- a man 'died' 30 times and a woman 29 times due to snake bites in a scam to siphon off public money running into crores.
The alleged scam worth around Rs 11.26 crore was carried out by faking snakebite, drowning and lightning related deaths in official records to claim compensation from the state government.
A detailed probe conducted by the finance department from Jabalpur, which began with the scrutiny of bills of Keolari tehsil of Seoni district, led to the unearthing of the scam. “A scam worth Rs 11.26 crore has come to the fore, following the investigations. The embezzled Rs 11.26 crore was credited into the bank accounts of 47 people,” joint director (finance) Rohit Kaushal, who led the year-long probe, said on Wednesday.
The man who is believed to have authored the entire scam, Assistant Grade III Sachin Dahayak, transferred the amount into the accounts of his family, friends and acquaintances. The public money was transferred to personal accounts instead of directly going to the beneficiary accounts, which establishes that the embezzlement was done in a planned and organized manner.
The scam, which reportedly happened between 2018-19 to 2021-22, saw many of those shown in government records as deceased due to snakebites, drowning and lightning, 'die' multiple times particularly due to the venomous bites of serpents.
A man named Ramesh was shown in the records of Keolari tehsil to have 'died' 30 times from snakebite, while Dwarika Bai 'died' 29 times and Ram Kumar 28 times.
The maximum Rs 4 lakh compensation is paid to the families of those who lose their loved ones due to natural calamities like snakebite, drowning, lightning, etc.
“During the year-long probe conducted on the order of the finance department, we scrutinized all bills related to financial assistance released for natural calamities, like snakebites. The probe has revealed embezzlement of Rs 11.26 crore. Death certificates and autopsy reports of those shown dead in the records of the Keolari tehsil, weren’t made available to our team, despite repeated requests,” the joint director (finance) Rohit Kaushal said.
The probe has revealed that bills of those shown dead due to snakebites and drowning in the records were passed without death certificates, post-mortem reports and police verification. The Rs 11.26 crore embezzled through the scam was credited into the accounts of 47 people, including 46 private persons and one government employee.
The probe also revealed that staff at the Keolari tehsil took advantage of shortcomings in the integrated financial management information system (IFMIS) to execute the scam.
While Dahayak, who has been arrested, has emerged as the key player behind the entire scam, the suspected involvement of six other government employees, including a sub divisional magistrate, four tehsildars and one Assistant Grade III (who were posted at the Keolari tehsil between 2018-19 and 2021-22) has also come to the fore.
The probe also showed that fake documents to claim the compensation were prepared by misusing the official logins and IDs of the officers (tehsildars and an SDM), which served as the basis for release of payments from the treasury.
According to Seoni district collector Sanskriti Jain, action has already been initiated in the entire matter which dates back to 2019-2022. “While the main accused Assistant Grade III Sachin Dahayak has been arrested and is already in jail, departmental enquiries (DE) have been started against the government employees suspected to be involved in the entire matter.”
CAG audit had already flagged the scam
The comptroller and auditor general (CAG) conducted an audit in October and November 2022 to examine the disbursement of financial assistance under four schemes of natural calamities on which the state government provided maximum financial assistance during 2018-19 to 2021-22.
The audit observed financial assistance worth Rs 23.81 crores, meant to provide relief to families hit by natural calamities and accidents, was siphoned into accounts of government employees, their relatives and other unauthorized/ineligible persons in 13 districts of Madhya Pradesh.
According to the report of the CAG audit which was tabled in the Vidhan Sabha in March 2025, the fraud of Rs 23.81 crore in disbursement of relief sums to the families hit by natural calamities and accidents took place in 13 districts -- Seoni, Sheopur, Sehore, Shivpuri, Dewas, Chhatarpur, Khandwa, Mandsaur, Raisen, Damoh, Satna, Agar-Malwa and Vidisha.
Out of the total fraud of Rs 23.81 crore, Rs 21.14 crore pertained to siphoning money into accounts of unauthorized (ineligible) persons and Rs 2.67 crore related to fraudulent distribution to government employees and their relatives.
The maximum of Rs 11.79 crore was siphoned off in Seoni district, followed by Rs 3.36 crore in Sheopur, Rs 3 crore in Shivpuri, Rs 1.26 crore in Dewas and Rs 1.17 crore in Sehore district.
According to the CAG report, 81 bills of Keolari tehsil were examined, which revealed that Rs 11.64 crore has been fraudulently transferred into accounts of 59 unauthorized persons through 291 fake sanction orders.