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New Delhi:

In yet another case of fraud related to the Chief Minister’s Mass Marriage Scheme in Uttar Pradesh, a woman married her own brother to avail the benefits of the scheme when the groom she was to marry failed to show up.

The incident took place during a mass wedding event at Maharajganj on March 5, the police said on Monday.

The woman, Preeti Yadav, was persuaded by some middlemen to marry her brother, Krishna, when the groom, Ramesh Yadav, couldn’t reach the venue on time. 

The couple was already married and had registered for the mass wedding scheme to score Rs 51,000 given to beneficiaries.

A probe was ordered and a case was registered against the siblings.

A village development officer was also suspended and action is being taken against the official who verified their documents before the event.

Under the scheme, Rs 51,000 is given to couples getting married; Rs 35,000 is sent to the bride’s bank account and Rs 10,000 is given for buying gifts for the couple, and Rs 6,000 is marked for arranging the ceremony.

Earlier in January, a similar fraud was reported in Ballia in which as many as 240 ineligible people enrolled themselves to derive these benefits. Twenty teams were formed and were sent from door to door to investigate the matter and 15 people, including some government officials, were arrested.

The Uttar Pradesh government had then decided to link the details of the newly-wed couples with Aadhaar to prevent such crimes.

The government will give marriage certificates to couples on the spot in the programme to stop the repeat of the fraud, state Social Welfare Minister Asim Arun had said.

(With inputs from Dharmendra Kumar Gupta)