MP: Gwalior Collector orders to register FIR against 74 people in Public Health Engineering scam

Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) [India], July 2 (ANI): The Gwalior Collector has ordered to register a First Information Report (FIR) against 74 people in connection with alleged Public Health Engineering (PHE) scam in the district.

Notably, Gwalior Crime Branch registered a case on August 4, last year, against two named persons, Hira Lal and Sanjay Solanki and some unknown persons in the PHE scam of Rs 84 crore that occurred in the district.

In a recent development, after reviewing the investigation report of the scam, Collector Ruchika Chauhan has directed the ADM and Senior Treasury Officer to register the FIR against 74 more persons whose involvement was found in the scam.

“A complaint was received in the past about various types of payments made by the salary head of the PHE department, after which an investigation committee was formed under the Treasury Officer and Senior Financial Officer. They investigated the matter for several days and on various points. Prima facie, they provided a list of people who are clearly involved in the scam and there are about 74 such people in it. We will send their names to the crime branch to add them to the FIR already filed. Of these, six people are employees of the PHE department,” Collector Chauhan told ANI.

Apart from this, the institutions or organisations to whom the payments were made and if there were any mistakes, they should have reported it immediately, which were not done, so definitely their involvement is also being found in it, she added.

The scam stems from fraudulent payments in Gwalior’s PHE Department Division, which came to light on July 27, 2023.