Surat: Anti-corruption bureau sleuths registered nine fresh offences in Gujarat Land Development Corporation (GLDC) farm pond scam for siphoning of Rs65.75 lakh of government funds at Tapi ACB police station on Saturday. The accused claimed funds in 2017 for developing 59 ponds in villages of Tapi district, but they existed only on paper. ACB investigation also revealed that a pond dug under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) at Saraiya village was shown as having been developed under GLDC scheme. “Over Rs4 lakh was claimed for the pond developed under MNREGA by the accused officials,” said P M Parmar, assistant director, ACB Surat.“In the fresh cases registered by ACB, it was found that along with farm pond, the accused had claimed money for developing larger ponds in bordering areas of villages. These ponds cost around Rs5 lakh, almost four times than a farm pond,” said ACB officials.ACB has booked 13 accused in the nine fresh cases. Preliminary investigation in these cases was done by police inspector B K Vannar. The cases are being further investigated by S R Patel, police inspector, Valsad, and V A Desai, police inspector, Tapi. Of the 13 accused, eight are GLDC employees and five happen to be contractors. Two assistant directors Krushnakumar Upadhyay and Santosh Parulkar, are also among the accused. Upadhyay and Parulkar were arrested in the previous cases related to the farm pond scam. Earlier 15 offences related to the farm pond scam of GLDC were registered by ACB in the districts of south Gujarat.

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