Dahod: Local police on Saturday arrested Balvantsinh Khabad, son of Gujarat Minister of State for Panchayat and Agriculture, Bachubhai Khabad. The arrest came in connection with an alleged ₹71 crore scam under the MGNREGA scheme in Devgadh Baria and Dhanpur talukas. Along with Balvantsinh, the then Town Development Officer (TDO), Darshan Patel, was also arrested.

The arrest follows Balvantsinh and his brother Kiran recently withdrawing their anticipatory bail applications from the Dahod court. Deputy Superintendent of Police Jagdish Bhandari told the media that preliminary findings linked Balvantsinh to irregularities highlighted in the FIR filed by the District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) in April. According to the investigation, Balvantsinh operated a supply agency that allegedly submitted inflated bills for undelivered materials meant for MGNREGA projects. The probe is ongoing, and Kiran Khabad’s involvement is still under examination.

Balvantsinh, who runs Shri Raj Traders, had reportedly been awarded several construction contracts in Dhanpur taluka. The case came to light after a complaint was filed by B.M. Patel, then Director of the DRDA, who flagged large-scale irregularities following an internal investigation.

The FIR, lodged on April 24, accuses officials of awarding contracts to non-qualified firms by bypassing the standard tendering process. Several payments were allegedly made for projects that existed only on paper. In one such case, villagers in Kuva, Devgadh Baria, alerted authorities about works that were billed but never executed.

Documents revealed that in Kuva and Redhana, thousands of meters of roads billed for construction were never built. In Seemamoi, only a fraction of the proposed 19.2 km road was completed. Bills attached to the complaint support these findings. The complaint also accused several government officials and contractual staff of conspiring with unauthorized agencies, including Balvantsinh’s firm, to embezzle government funds through forged paperwork.

Earlier, five others were arrested in the case, including two MGNREGA accountants—Jayveer Nagori and Mahipalsinh Chauhan—Gram Rojgar Sevaks Kuldeep Baria and Mangalsinh Pateliya, and technical assistant Manish Patel.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Amit Chavda has demanded the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the scam. He alleged that the BJP government ignored repeated complaints about corruption in the MGNREGA scheme and claimed that the ongoing investigation is superficial. Chavda asserted that a deeper probe would expose more influential names involved in the scam. DeshGujarat