ED attaches Rs 5.37 crore assets of Shobhit Tripathi in Kanyadan scheme scam, files chargesheet

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken major action in the alleged scam in Madhya Pradesh's Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Vivah Sahayata Yojana. Immovable property worth Rs 5.37 crore belonging to the main accused, Shobhit Tripathi, has been attached. Tripathi is a former CEO of the Sironj Janpad Panchayat in Vidisha district and a brother-in-law of former Madhya Pradesh minister Gopal Bhargava.

The ED's Bhopal zonal office provisionally attached the property under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The property is registered in the names of Shobhit Tripathi and his alleged associate Hemant Sahu. On October 31, the ED also filed a chargesheet against Tripathi and two other accused in the special PMLA court in Bhopal.

According to the ED's investigation, between 2019 and November 2021, while he was CEO of the Sironj Janpad Panchayat, Tripathi and others showed 5,923 fake and suspicious marriages on paper. It is alleged that Rs 30.8 crore was sanctioned from the government treasury on this basis and embezzled.

The investigation found that this went on at a time when a Covid lockdown was in force in the country and public weddings and mass gatherings were completely banned. It is alleged that bank accounts were quietly opened, using fake identity documents, in the names of people who were not eligible for the scheme and were not told. As soon as the government assistance of Rs 51,000 per girl reached these accounts, the accused withdrew the money in cash in several instalments, so that the money could not be traced, and shared it among themselves.

According to the ED, Tripathi and several others worked as an organised network, which included associates such as Hemant Sahu and Yogendra Sharma. The co-accused are alleged to have created fake applications and false documents in the names of ineligible and fictitious beneficiaries. Details from these papers were uploaded on a government portal so that the marriages would look valid on paper.

With the help of these associates, bank accounts were secretly opened in the names of poor or unsuspecting people, or their existing accounts were misused, without their knowledge. As soon as scheme money reached these accounts, the co-accused immediately withdrew it in cash in instalments, through ATMs and other means. The investigation also found that, to hide black money, the accused sent the money to the accounts of their relatives and invested it in the stock market, mutual funds and benami property.

The ED arrested Shobhit Tripathi on September 2, 2026, and he is currently in judicial custody. Earlier, the Economic Offences Wing of Madhya Pradesh Police had registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, on the basis of which the ED began its money laundering investigation.

The ED has told the court that further investigation is continuing to trace the money and identify other people who may be involved in this large network, which spans 5,923 suspicious marriages, more than 20 banks and 93 gram panchayats.