Dahod, Gujarat — The veneer of “double-engine sarkar” development cracked wide open on Saturday as police arrested Balvant Khabad, son of BJP minister for panchayat and agriculture Bachubhai Khabad, for masterminding a ₹71-crore swindle that robbed some of Gujarat’s poorest Adivasi blocks of basic rural-works funds, reported the New Indian Express.
Investigators say 35 shell contractors—many floated by politicians’ relatives—fabricated completion certificates for roads, check walls and stone bunds across Devgadh Baria and Dhanpur between 2021 and 2024. Money flowed, but mud tracks and crumbling fields remained untouched.
Balvant Khabad’s firm allegedly pocketed lakhs while villagers trudged through slush. The then Taluka Development Officer Darshan Patel joined him in handcuffs on Friday night, taking total arrests to seven.
The FIR, filed after District Rural Development Agency spot-checks, details how invoices were cleared for projects that never left the blueprint stage; in other cases, ineligible suppliers were paid despite skipping the tender process altogether.
Deputy SP Jagdishsinh Bhandari, heading the probe, confirmed charges of cheating, forgery and breach of trust under IPC sections and the Prevention of Corruption Act. “Further recoveries and ministerial links are under active scrutiny,” he told reporters, hinting higher-ups may face questioning.
For Dahod’s tribal families—who cling to MGNREGA wages for survival—the scam is more than statistics: it is stolen livelihood, undelivered roads to schools, and yet another reminder that “Sabka Vikas” often stops at the contractor’s gate.
