Believe it or not! 2 died 58 times of snakebites

IN Madhya Pradesh's Seoni district, famous as the land of Jungle Book's Mowgli, two men faked their deaths 58 times due to snakebites and a woman 29 times only to siphon off public money running into crores to an unholy nexus with government employees.

- ANURAAG SINGH @ Bhopal

An alleged scam worth ₹11.26 crore, pertaining to faking of snakebite, drowning and lightning related deaths in government records to claim compensation/financial assistance from the state government, has been unearthed in Seoni.

A probe conducted by the finance department, which began with the scrutiny of bills of Keolari tehsil, led to the unearthing of the scam. "A scam worth ₹11.26 crore has come to the fore following the investigations. The embezzled ₹11.26 crore was credited into the bank accounts of 47 people," joint director (finance) Rohit Kaushal, who led the year-long probe, said on Wednesday.