Dahod: Former IAS officer B D Ninama, apprehended earlier this week in connection with the setting up of six fake government offices in Dahod, purportedly approved 82 out of the 100 proposals submitted by the fake offices. These proposals were designed to misappropriate grants totaling Rs 18.6 crore under the tribal sub-plan from 2018 to 2023, as revealed in the ongoing investigation.

A specialized team from Dahod district police is now tracing the transactions linked to the accused across more than 20 bank accounts, some of which are located in Vadodara city. The police revealed that the legitimate government departments, whose names were used for the bogus offices, were complicit in fabricating proposals to embezzle funds. Many other government officials are currently under investigation.

Dahod SP Rajdeepsinh Zala highlighted the anomaly where the original departments showed no movement of project files while the bogus offices were active under Ninama’s oversight. Zala stated, “Some of the officers are in connivance with the racketeers.”

On Wednesday, the police arrested Ishwar Kolcha, an executive engineer in the panchayat minor irrigation department, who was implicated after Ninama’s arrest. Kolcha was allegedly responsible for preparing proposals for the bogus office and presenting them to Ninama for approval.

After Ninama’s interrogation, it was revealed that he had approved 82 of the 100 proposals during his tenure as the project administrator. “We can only imagine how the project administrator approved so many proposals from the bogus offices without raising an eyebrow. Investigation has made it clear that Ninama was totally involved in the scam…” Zala told a newspaper.

The fraudulent offices in Dahod were orchestrated by conman Sandeep Rajput, previously arrested for a similar case in Chhota Udepur. The scam came to light during an investigation into the Chhota Udepur case. Ninama and co-accused Abu Bakr Saiyed reportedly met in 2016 during Ninama’s posting in Chhota Udepur, and the investigation is exploring whether the bogus office operation in Dahod had a prior money trail in 2016.

Several officers and clerks from the tribal district’s project administration department are being questioned, and the process of freezing 20 identified bank accounts belonging to the accused is underway. The police have yet to apprehend Abu Bakr Saiyyed, who is hospitalized with a heart ailment.

The FIR indicates that Rajput, posing as the executive engineer, utilized three of the fake offices to divert grants worth Rs 11.74 crore received under the tribal sub-plan in the fiscal year 2020-21 alone. DeshGujarat