How a Maharashtra village of 1,500 logged 27,398 births in just 3 months

Authorities in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district are probing a massive birth registration scam after a village of just 1,500 people recorded over 27,000 delayed births in three months, raising fears of

In a bizarre case that has stunned officials, a village in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district recorded 27,398 “delayed birth registrations” in just three months despite having a population of only about 1,500, reported PTI. The abnormal figures have triggered multiple probes into what is being described as one of the biggest birth certificate scams in the state.

 

How did a routine check turn into a cyber fraud case?

 

The irregularities were discovered during a special drive between September and November 2025 to scrutinise delayed birth and death registrations in Shendurusani gram panchayat in Arni tehsil. Officials were immediately struck by the sheer scale of the numbers, which were grossly disproportionate to the village’s actual population.

 

What first appeared to be a simple clerical or data-entry error soon unfolded into suspected large-scale cyber fraud, raising serious concerns about the security and integrity of the Civil Registration System (CRS), the digital platform used to record births and deaths.

 

What did the investigation reveal?

 

A preliminary probe revealed that the CRS had been compromised. The login ID of the Shendurusani gram panchayat was traced to Mumbai, pointing to a sophisticated cybercrime racket operating remotely.

 

Authorities found that thousands of registrations were being entered outside local jurisdiction, bypassing verification procedures entirely. This breach allowed fraudulent birth entries to flood the system without the knowledge or involvement of local officials.

 

How did authorities respond?

 

Following the discovery, the District Health Officer and the District Registrar (Births and Deaths) alerted the Chief Executive Officer of the Yavatmal Zilla Parishad, Mandar Patki, who immediately formed an inquiry committee and ordered a detailed investigation.

 

What did the inquiry committee find?

 

An on-site inspection by the committee confirmed that all 27,397 birth registrations and seven death records were outside the gram panchayat’s jurisdiction, reinforcing suspicions of large-scale cyber fraud. Authorities are now investigating how the CRS ID was compromised and whether the fake registrations were used for identity fraud, accessing government scheme benefits, or other illegal activities.

 

Senior BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, who visited the village on Wednesday, said that 99 per cent of the names in the suspicious entries belonged to people from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, reported India Today.

 

Meanwhile, the District Health Officer and the District Registrar (Births and Deaths) have urged all birth-death registrars in Yavatmal not to share their CRS login IDs, passwords, or OTPs with anyone and to promptly report any suspicious activity.

 

The case has also been forwarded to the Office of the Additional Registrar General of India and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Delhi for further investigation and scrutiny.