A major scandal worth over Rs 2.46 crore has came to light in the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) where the officers of the corporation conceived and made payment in the name of living employee by declaring him dead. A total of 123 such cases have been discovered in the initial stages of investigation and a case has been also registered against the 17 officials of the civic body, including 8 zonal officers (ZOs). In a strange situation, the files of 95 such cases are missing from the offices of zonal officers and the corporation.

 

The scam was unveiled when Mohammad Qamar, a resident of Ashoka Garden, filed a complaint with the Lokayukta on February 19, 2024, alleging that the civic authority had deposited Rs 2 lakh into the account of Syed Mustafa Ali in the name of death assistance in August 2023, but ironically, Syed Mustafa Ali was alive but was declared dead on the papers. Taking cognizance of the matter, a case was registered by the Lokayukta where it was found that in the name of pronouncing people as dead, the corporation is indulged in transferring funds into several bank accounts. Some of the residents have also claimed that this is the biggest scam unveiled in the history of the municipal corporation.