Man fakes Sunny Leone ID to steal Rs 9,000 from Women's Welfare Scheme

A man in Chhattisgarh fraudulently used the name of actor Sunny Leone to receive Rs,1000 monthly stipend given by the state government under the 'Mahtari Vandan Yojana', a scheme targeted at women.

In a bizarre case of fraud, Virendra Kumar Joshi, a 37-year-old man from Chhattisgarh, exploited the Mahtari Vandan Yojana by applying for benefits under the name of Bollywood actress Sunny Leone. Joshi managed to receive Rs 1,000 monthly payments from March to December 2024, totaling Rs 9,000, by submitting a fake application through a local Anganwadi worker, Vedmati Joshi, who lived nearby.

 

Mahtari Vandan Yojana is a Chhattisgarh government initiative aimed at empowering women by providing a monthly financial stipend of Rs 1,000. This scheme is designed to support married women, as well as widows, divorced, and abandoned women, ensuring they have a financial safety net. The funds are directly deposited into beneficiaries' bank accounts.

 

The deception came to light when social media users began questioning how Sunny Leone could be a beneficiary of a state welfare scheme. This led to a swift investigation by the authorities, revealing that Vedmati Joshi had carelessly verified the application without proper checks.

 

 This negligence led to the approval of payments from the state’s scheme intended to support real beneficiaries.

 

Bastar police station in-charge Chhabil Tandekar said the man behind the fraud, Virendra Joshi, was arrested under section 318 (4) of the new criminal code BNS (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and produced before a court.Virendra Joshi had fraudulently applied for the scheme in the Anganwadi Centre in Talur village under Bastar Development Block through a worker in the name of Leone, who was mentioned as the applicant, another official said. In the application, the accused had given his Aadhaar number and bank account details as other information required to be furnished under the scheme, he said. 

 

The verification of each application was to be done by a committee formed at the village level, which included the village in-charge/ward in-charge and the local Anganwadi worker. Documents uploaded on the portal were to be tested by the Anganwadi worker in the first verification and by the supervisor in the second stage and approved by the project officer, the official explained. Anganwadi worker Vedmati Joshi, who is also Virendra Joshi's neighbour, verified his application in the name of Leone on the online portal without checking facts, he added. 

 

Similarly, the supervisor also verified the application without proper checking, due to which the beneficiary with this fake name got amount in the form of DBT in the State Bank account linked to his Aadhaar number, the official said. 

 

As a result of the investigation:

 

• Virendra Joshi was arrested and charged with cheating and dishonestly inducing the delivery of property. He was placed in 14-day judicial custody.
• Vedmati Joshi has been dismissed from her job for serious negligence, while her supervisor and project officer were suspended for failing to conduct thorough checks on the application process.
• A show-cause notice has been issued to the then-District Programme Officer and a reply has been sought

 

Authorities have frozen Joshi's bank account, and efforts are underway to recover the funds. The incident has raised serious concerns about the verification processes in place for government schemes designed to support vulnerable populations.