Two days after the Gujarat Police arrested Balwant Khabad, elder son of minister of state for panchayats Bachu Khabad, the younger son, Kiran, has also also been arrested in connection with a Rs 71 crore scam under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Scheme in Dahod, a tribal district.
Kiran was arrested from the Vadodara-Halol Highway on Monday morning.
Along with Balwant, Darshit Patel, a taluka development officer, was also arrested on Saturday.
Both the sons of the minister are allegedly involved in the scam and have been evading arrest.
An OBC heavyweight of the BJP and a four-time MLA, Khabad, has still not responded publicly to the arrest of his sons.
Both of them had filed anticipatory bail applications. Later, the applications were withdrawn.
Talking to Vibes of India, Dr. Yagnesh Dave, chief spokesperson of the Gujarat BJP, said that the party has not taken any decision on Khabad so far.
The scam, unearthed by Dahod’s District Rural Development Authority involved as many as 32 firms supplying materials in Dhanpur and Devgadh Baria talukas despite none of these emerging as the lowest bidder, which is a requirement under procurement rules.
Even before Khabad brother were arrested, there have been other arrests also in this case.
According to the police, Balwant was linked to Shri Raj Construction Company. The company received payments for supplying materials for the NREGA projects despite not qualifying in bidding. Kiran was connected with Shri Raj Traders. This firm also received funds without securing contracts.
For long opposition Congress and its leader Amit Chavda have been raising the issue of this scam. The issue even rocked the state assembly. Chavda demanded that a proper inquiry should be done by a Special Investigation Team so that the arrests merely do not remain an eyewash.
Chaitar Vasava, Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Dediapada, said he was satisfied to some extent as the state government has taken note of this issue. Demanding Khabad’s resigntion, Vasava said that if a thorough investigtion is done this will emerge as a big scam involving about Rs 250 crore.
Backing his statement, he said representations and allegations were made about scams in 19 panchayats. However, the figure of Rs 71 crore has emerged from only three panchayats that were looked into, he added.
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