A major scam has come to light in Bilaspur, where suicides were dressed up as snake bite deaths to siphon off government compensation money. Investigators say tehsil office and SDM office staff colluded to fake postmortem reports and other documents, and several people have already been arrested in the case.
How the fraud was actually pulled off
The investigation found that the accused worked with considerable cunning. They picked old cases where the actual cause of death was suicide, then used the marg number, the police inquest number, from those very cases to get a fake postmortem report prepared, one that falsely recorded the death as caused by a snake bite. On the strength of these fabricated documents, they got the government's 4 lakh rupee assistance amount for snake bite victims sanctioned and withdrawn. What made it worse was that the name and address of the person shown as receiving the assistance turned out to be fake too, meaning no genuine claimant ever saw that money.
Who has been arrested so far
The racket was not limited to office clerks alone; professionals were equally involved. Acting on the case, Sarkanda police arrested Narendra Kaushik, a clerk at the SDM office. Two clerks from the tehsil office, Harishankar Rathore and Garib Binjhwar, were also taken into custody. Police additionally arrested a woman doctor, Priyanka Soni, and an advocate, Rajendra Kumar Chaturvedi, making clear that the collusion ran through every stage, from the fake postmortem to the paperwork that followed.
The scandal surfaced through the state assembly
The scam only came to light after the matter reached the state assembly. Beltara MLA Sushant Shukla had raised questions about compensation distributed between 2019 and 2023 and demanded a probe into this suspicious dealing that took place during the tenure of the then Congress government. Once the government ordered an inquiry, startling facts began to emerge. It turned out that files had been prepared showing both ordinary and suspicious deaths as snake bites, purely so that government assistance money could be withdrawn with ease.
17 fake cases uncovered so far
Bilaspur SSP Rajnish Singh said that 17 fake snake bite cases have been identified in the district so far. These cases have been registered across the Sarkanda, Torwa, Civil Line and Bilha police stations. Police say this is only the beginning of the probe. The entire chain, from how the fake postmortem reports were created to how the compensation was approved and finally paid out, is being examined. Police fear that as the investigation advances, both the amount involved in the scam and the number of accused could rise further.
Collector says no one will be spared
Collector Sanjay Agrawal said that financial assistance in snake bite cases is given under the RBC 6-4 provision, and the accused exploited a loophole in this very rule to get fraudulent files cleared. He said police are piecing together every link of the racket, and strict action will follow against anyone whose role comes to light. Old records at the tehsil office are currently being scrutinised in detail, and more prominent names connected to the scam are expected to be exposed in the coming days.
