The Delhi Police said the accused enrolled over 15,000 people under the fake scheme. (File)
The Delhi Police has arrested three people for allegedly running fake websites in the name of "Pradhan Mantri Shishu Vikas Yojana" and registering over 15,000 people through a large network of agents running up to panchayat level.
The police said the accused have been identified as Neeraj Pandey, Suvender Yadav, both residents of Patna in Bihar, and Adarsh Yadav from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
A case was registered on the complaint of the Director of National Health Authority who alleged that a fake website -- www.pmsvy-cloud.in -- has floated a forged scheme "Pradhan Mantri Shishu Vikas Yojna" and was taking money from people in the name of registration and children insurance.
"During investigation, the police arrested Neeraj and Adarsh from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They have enrolled over 15,000 people under this fake scheme," said Anyesh Roy, the Cyber Crime Department's Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Neeraj revealed that another website was being run by Suvender Yadav of Patna in the name of "PM Shishu Vikas Yojana." The police conducted a raid in Patna and arrested Suvender, the DCP said.
The website operators had formulated a scheme in the name of PM Shishu Vikas Yojana and offered what they called were health insurance cover and financial support for education, Mr Roy said.
For getting maximum number of children enrolled, they appointed state heads across the country and each state head further employed district heads in their respective states.
These district heads appointed ground level agents who worked at gram panchayat level and conducted meetings at village or tehsil levels to lure the local people, the police said, adding that further investigation is underway.
The Press Information Bureau had earlier this year ran a fact-check on the claim that there was a government scheme under the name "Pradhan Mantri Shishu Vikas Yojana" and said this was fake news.
"There is NO 'Pradhan Mantri Shishu Vikas Yojana' under the Central Government," the PIB Fact Check had tweeted on January 30.