As many as 38 members/operatives of an interstate gang of criminals, accused of diverting government welfare funds into the bank accounts of ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries, were produced before a trial court in Jhalawar on Thursday.
The 38 accused, arrested by police teams from different locations under Operation Shutterdown, were produced before a trial court in Jhalawar on Thursday. The court remanded nine of them to police custody till November 3, 2025, while the remaining 29 were sent to jail under judicial custody for 15 days, a police spokesperson said.
They have embezzled funds from various Central and Rajasthan Government welfare schemes, including the PM Kisan Samman Yojna and various social security pension schemes, and other initiatives.
The accused allegedly created unauthorised user IDs of state and district nodal offices and transferred benefits to fake bank accounts opened in the names of fictitious beneficiaries. They also hacked several inactive accounts to misuse them for dubious transactions.
They either created unauthorised duplicate IDs or hacked the official IDs of more than 1,200 officers across the country and transferred benefits under the scheme into about 3 to 4 lakh bank accounts, most of which belonged to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries.
The accused in police custody were being interrogated in multiple sessions by the police and other investigating agencies.
Given the large number of accused, bank accounts, and officials’ IDs spread across several states, the scope of the investigation may be expanded, the spokesperson said.
Senior officials of the Special Operation Group (SOG) have reached Jhalawar to supervise the investigation. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) may also be formed, he added.