Bollywood starlets Deepika Padukone, Sonakshi Sinha, Jacqueline Fernandez and Rani Mukherjee are married to villagers in Sahabganj village in Uttar Pradesh and are listed "fictitious" beneficiaries that regularly receive ration from fair price shops.
This startling news can be attributed to the records of a distributor, Raj Kishore, in Sahabganj village of Qayamganj tehsil. The fraudulent claims were exposed through local social activists and villagers came across the names of Bollywood actresses while verifying the credentials of ration card holders attached on the website of the Food and Civil Supplies department. Once they filed complaints against the distributor, Farrukhabad district magistrate Prakash Bindu ordered a probe.
As per the records, Jacqueline's "husband" is Sadhu Lal, Deepika's spouse is Rakesh Chand and Sonakshi is shown as married to Ramesh Chand.
"What's more, instead of her real-life producer director husband Aditya Chopra, the authorities have mentioned Ramroop as Rani Mukherjee's husband," Pushpendra, one among a group of social activists to lodge a complaint with the authorities, was quoted saying to the Times of India.
According to another social activist, Deepika's digitised ration card no is 215920119259, while that of Jacqueline is 215920119257, of Rani Mukherjee is 215920119261, and of Sonakshi is 215920119256.
While Deepika's ration card was applied for under the general category, Jacqueline, Rani and Sonakshi were beneficiaries under the Antoyadaya scheme as they were listed as "backward" by the fraudsters.
"The fraudsters mentioned Rs. 18,000 as the annual income of all the four actresses," a district supply office source said.
"The error will be rectified and a show-cause notice has been issued to the concerned authorities. We will conduct proceedings and punish the culprit," Qayamganj Sub District Magistrate (SDM) Ajit Singh was quoted as saying.