Babulal Marandi alleges ₹631-crore DMFT scam, demands CBI probe

BJP state president and Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi has alleged that Chief Minister Hemant Soren is the mastermind behind massive irregularities in the District Mineral Foundation Trust (DMFT) fund, calling it the “biggest misuse in twenty-five years.”

Marandi claimed that the Chief Minister had treated the fund as his personal ATM and demanded a CBI probe, arguing that no district official could have executed such large-scale diversion of resources without political protection.

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Documents reviewed by The Statesman reveal how the DMFT in Bokaro sanctioned inflated contracts across multiple sectors while bypassing governing body approvals. Between April 2024 and May 2025, the district administration floated fifty-one tenders worth ₹631 crore.

Of this, more than ₹444 crore went to just seventeen agencies. Two of them—the National Cooperative Construction Federation of India and L Eldkar Agency of Jamshedpur—alone secured contracts exceeding ₹223 crore.

Payments were made for supplies and projects at several times the prevailing market rate. Tablet labs were billed at nearly ₹25 lakh per unit, despite a market price of just over ₹2 lakh. One hundred and eighty-seven high-mast lights were purchased at more than ₹7 lakh each, though available for a fraction of that.

Sixteen LED vans were billed at ₹18–19 lakh each when their market price was under ₹9 lakh. One hundred and sixty-four solar pumps were sanctioned at ₹7–9 lakh each, although similar pumps are available for ₹1–2 lakh. Furniture for schools and anganwadis, model school upgrades, and medical equipment for hospitals all showed similar patterns of inflated billing.

Training and placement programmes worth nearly ₹60 crore were also sanctioned through Delhi-based agencies, but many of the promised training were either incomplete or never held. Activists estimate that the scale of inflation suggests excess payouts of at least ₹50–60 crore.

DMFT rules require governing body approval for work orders above ₹5 crore, yet multiple projects far exceeding this limit were sanctioned without such clearance. Short-tender procedures were repeatedly used to award contracts.

Marandi said Bokaro is only one example and claimed that similar misuse has taken place across Jharkhand. “If the Chief Minister is clean, he should himself recommend a CBI inquiry,” he told reporters, adding that the BJP will raise the issue from the streets to the Assembly.

The state government has yet to respond. With mounting evidence of inflated billing and repeated violations of rules, the focus is now on whether an independent audit or federal investigation will be ordered to fix accountability for funds meant to support mining-affected communities.