ED Filed Prosecution Complaint In Marriage Assistance Scheme Against Shobhit Tripathi And Two Other Persons
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a prosecution complaint against Shobhit Tripathi, the then Chief Executive Officer of Janpad Panchayat Sironj, and two other persons before the Special PMLA Court in Bhopal.
The complaint relates to alleged diversion of government funds under the Madhya Pradesh government’s Marriage Assistance Scheme. According to the ED press release dated 31 October 2026, the agency has identified fraudulent disbursement of Rs 30.18 crore in 5,923 suspicious marriage assistance cases.
The scheme provided financial assistance of Rs 51,000 for the marriage of daughters of registered poor construction workers. The money was meant to support economically vulnerable families of construction workers. The ED has alleged that this money was obtained through fabricated marriage applications, forged beneficiary credentials and bank accounts opened without the knowledge of the people whose identities were used. The funds were later withdrawn in cash.
Shobhit Tripathi held the post of CEO of Janpad Panchayat Sironj from 2019 until November 2021. The ED has stated that during this period he colluded with others and approved and disbursed approximately Rs 30.18 crore in the suspicious cases. The agency has described the matter as involving misuse of administrative authority, fabrication of documents, unauthorised use of personal credentials, transfers from the government treasury and subsequent diversion of public money.
The ED had earlier conducted searches on 3 October 2025 at seven locations in Bhopal, Vidisha, Katni and Chhatarpur districts. During those searches the agency seized incriminating documents, property-related papers and digital devices. It also froze bank accounts and mutual funds amounting to Rs 21.7 lakh belonging to Tripathi and others.
According to the ED’s 7 October 2025 press release, the alleged method involved several steps. Forged and fabricated application forms and credentials of ineligible beneficiaries were used to generate claims. Fabricated information was uploaded onto the government portal. Government funds were then transferred from the treasury into bank accounts linked to these claims. Accounts were allegedly opened using the credentials of ineligible beneficiaries without their knowledge. Once the money reached these accounts it was withdrawn through ATMs in multiple cash instalments.
The same release stated that the withdrawn money was deposited into accounts belonging to Shobhit Tripathi, his family members and other related persons or entities. Accounts of relatives and their business concerns were allegedly used to layer the proceeds and present them as legitimate. The money was further used for payments, investment in the share market and mutual funds, and acquisition of immovable properties.
The ED named two data-entry operators in connection with the case. Yogendra Sharma and Hemant Sahu were alleged to have acted in collusion with Tripathi. They were said to have participated in forging and fabricating documents and uploading fraudulent information onto the government portal. The 31 October 2026 press release confirmed that properties belonging to Shobhit Tripathi and his associate Hemant Sahu were attached on 28 October 2026. Subsequent reporting put the value of the attached immovable properties at Rs 5.37 crore.
Shobhit Tripathi was arrested by the ED on 2 September 2026 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He was in judicial custody at the time the prosecution complaint was filed.
The ED case is based on an earlier investigation by the Economic Offences Wing of Bhopal. The EOW had registered a case in January 2022 after receiving information about large-scale irregularities under the scheme. Contemporary media reports stated that the EOW verified the information and identified the same figure of Rs 30.18 crore in 5,923 cases during Tripathi’s tenure.
A Hindustan Times report published on 7 January 2022 described some of the findings of the EOW inquiry. One example cited involved a 27-year-old man whose three daughters were shown as having been married over a period of about 14 months, allowing claims of Rs 51,000 for each. The report also stated that assistance was sanctioned to individuals who had not applied for it and to people who did not have daughters.
The same report noted that approximately Rs 18.52 crore was sanctioned in around 3,500 cases between April 2020 and June 2021. This period overlapped with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions when public marriages were restricted. The ED has also referred to assistance being extended to ineligible individuals during the lockdown period.
Free Press Journal reporting from the same period stated that the matter first came to wider notice on 22 December 2021 when BJP MLA Umakant Sharma sought information from the state Labour Minister about payments under the marriage assistance programme in Sironj Janpad Panchayat. Tripathi was reported to have been suspended on 4 January 2022. The EOW registered its case on 6 January 2022 against Tripathi, Hemant alias Jitendra Sahu and Yogendra Sharma. The EOW investigation was reported to have covered 20 banks and 93 Gram Panchayats in Sironj.
The original EOW FIR invoked sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to cheating, criminal breach of trust by a public servant and criminal conspiracy, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act concerning criminal misconduct and possession of resources disproportionate to known sources of income. The ED investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is based on these scheduled offences and the alleged subsequent handling of the proceeds of crime.
The ED has stated that the money obtained through the suspicious claims was withdrawn in cash and later deposited into accounts linked to Tripathi, his family members and related entities. It was then moved through further accounts and used for investments and property purchases. The agency has attached immovable properties in the names of Tripathi and Hemant Sahu valued at Rs 5.37 crore. Bank accounts and mutual funds worth Rs 21.7 lakh were frozen during the earlier searches.
The prosecution complaint filed on 31 October 2026 places the allegations before the Special PMLA Court in Bhopal. The complaint is against Shobhit Tripathi and two other persons. The ED has described the case as involving organised fraud in which government funds intended for daughters of registered poor construction workers were obtained through fabricated applications and diverted.
The scheme was designed to provide Rs 51,000 per eligible marriage. The aggregate figure of Rs 30.18 crore across 5,923 cases corresponds closely to the scheme amount multiplied by the number of cases. The average per case works out to approximately Rs 50,954. The ED has not published a full transaction-level schedule of each payment.
The investigation has examined the movement of funds from the government treasury into the accounts that received the scheme money, the cash withdrawals, the subsequent deposits into other accounts, the use of related business concerns and the acquisition of assets. Properties attached on 28 October 2026 stand in the names of Tripathi and Hemant Sahu. The attachment is provisional under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and remains subject to further legal process.
The case originated from the EOW inquiry that began after information was received about irregularities in Sironj. The EOW findings formed the basis for the ED’s money-laundering investigation. Searches were conducted in October 2025, the arrest took place in September 2026, properties were attached in October 2026 and the prosecution complaint was filed at the end of that month.
The ED has stated that fabricated application forms and credentials of ineligible beneficiaries were used. Information was uploaded onto the government portal. Funds were released from the treasury. Accounts were opened without the knowledge of the individuals concerned. Money was withdrawn in cash through ATMs and later deposited into accounts belonging to the accused and related persons. Further transactions through relatives’ accounts and business concerns were alleged to have been used to layer the funds. Investments in shares and mutual funds and purchase of immovable properties were also cited.
Yogendra Sharma and Hemant Sahu were identified by the ED as data-entry operators who participated in the fabrication of documents and the uploading of information. Hemant Sahu’s properties were among those attached along with those of Tripathi.
The matter concerns funds that were earmarked for a specific category of beneficiaries — daughters of registered poor construction workers. The ED has alleged that the administrative process meant to verify eligibility and disburse assistance was misused to generate and process suspicious claims on a large scale over a period of nearly three years.
The prosecution complaint now places the case before the Special Court. The earlier EOW investigation, the ED searches, the freezing of financial assets, the arrest, the provisional attachment of properties and the filing of the complaint form the public record of the enforcement actions taken so far. All figures and descriptions of the alleged mechanism are as stated by the Enforcement Directorate in its press releases of 7 October 2025 and 31 October 2026 and as reported in contemporary coverage of the EOW inquiry.
