EOW books former Madhya Pradesh's CMO over Rs 1.31 crore PMAY fraud, bribery charges

BHOPAL: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has registered an FIR against the then Chief Municipal Officer (CMO) of Dabra Municipal Council in Gwalior district over alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Officials said the alleged actions caused a financial loss of Rs 1.31 crore to the government. The case was initiated following a complaint by Dharmendra Singh, a councillor from Ward No. 11 in Dabra, who approached the Superintendent of Police, EOW Gwalior. The complaint alleged that between April 1, 2023, and April 30, 2024, then CMO Pradeep Bhadoria conspired to release excess funds to beneficiaries under the housing scheme and accepted bribes in the process. The complaint was registered at the EOW headquarters in Bhopal and later forwarded to the Gwalior unit for verification. According to the EOW investigation, under PMAY, each beneficiary is entitled to Rs 2.50 lakh, to be disbursed in three instalments. However, the probe found that Rs 3 lakh each was deposited into the accounts of 13 beneficiaries through the online portal. Investigators also found that payments were processed without mandatory geo-tagging of houses and without maintaining the required official records. Instead of following due procedure, payment advice was allegedly issued directly. The EOW alleged that Bhadoria authorised a contractual computer operator, Rahul Gupta, to handle portal operations and payment processing. The two allegedly acted in collusion and released excess funds to selected beneficiaries after accepting bribes. Officials said established procedures were bypassed and physical verification was not conducted before releasing payments. Based on the findings, the EOW has registered a case against Bhadoria and Rahul Gupta under various sections of the IPC and Sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.