Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 1 (IANS): Three persons, including an employee of the social welfare department, have been arrested by the Barra police in connection with the marriage scheme scam where they were allegedly found to be involved in misappropriation of funds.

A clerk of the social welfare department and the in-charge of the marriage grant, a fake applicant and a middleman have been arrested.

The police said all the three have been booked under the relevant sections of IPC and sent to the jail after being produced before the magistrate on Tuesday.

Inspector Barra police station, Harmeet Singh, said in the case of fraud, one Shiv Govind, a resident of Vikas Nagar, Lucknow, and in-charge of the marriage grant board of the social welfare department, Pradeep Kumar Saini, who made the fake application, and the broker Shekhar Sachan, who acted as a link between the fake applicant and the panel in-charge, were among the arrested.

The three got funds meant for marriages by using fake applications and the money would be divided between them.

The state social welfare department gives funds for marriage of girls belonging to socially weaker sections and the money was siphoned off in connivance with the employee.