RAIPUR
Sunny Leone has reportedly been a ‘beneficiary’ of Chhattisgarh’s Mahtari Vandan Yojana, with investigations revealing that ₹10,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from a Bastar bank account using her name.
This initiative provides direct cash incentives of ₹1,000 to eligible married women in the state, fulfilling a significant poll promise made by the Bharatiya Janata Party during the 2023 Assembly elections.
Public access to beneficiary data lists “Sunny Leon” as the recipient, along with the misspelled name “Jonny Sins” associated with her husband.
Bastar Collector Haris S disclosed that a local resident, Virendra Joshi, orchestrated the fraudulent withdrawal, stealing nearly ₹10,000 in the actress’s name. Joshi, who resides in the same village, is employed at a private company in Jagdalpur, and his wife is a legitimate beneficiary of the scheme, according to Mr. Haris.
In standard procedure, potential beneficiaries submit applications to local anganwadi workers, who conduct physical verifications and forward the information to their supervisors. Following this incident, both the anganwadi worker and her supervisor are under scrutiny, with an ongoing investigation into why Joshi chose a celebrity’s name for the scam, stated the collector.
Earlier this month, the Chhattisgarh government distributed ₹652.04 crore as the tenth installment of the Mahtari Vandan Yojana, benefiting around 70 lakh married women. To date, over ₹5,000 crore has been directly credited to the bank accounts of these women through the scheme.
Published – December 23, 2024 02:29 am IST
