Ranchi, May 19: A close aide of Jean Dreze, who was fighting for social audit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Chatarpur block of Jharkhand’s Palamau district, was found murdered four days ago.

Lalit Kumar Mehta had just dropped Dreze, who is considered the architect of the NREGS — the flagship programme of the UPA government — at a cyber cafe in Daltonganj and was on his way back to Chatarpur when he is believed to have been waylaid and killed.

Dreze had come to attend a public meeting on social audit of the NREGS, to be held the next day. The meeting had been organised by Mehta. Just hours ahead of the meeting, the 32-year-old’s bruised body was found in the Kandra forest area of Palamau.

“Mehta had been involved in verification of muster rolls. These revealed high levels of corruption involving people in high places. The brutality of the murder makes us believe that it was not a robbery. The investigations next week will shed more light,” Dreze, who is conducting an audit in Palamau district in Jharkhand, told The Indian Express.

In Chatarpur and its neighbouring areas, Mehta had been fighting for proper implementation of the NREGS. He was also the founder of an NGO, Vikas Sahyog Kendra (VSK), which is credited with having successfully supervised construction of over 110 check dams in drought-prone Palamau since 1997.

“The social audit of the NREGS was on top of Lalit’s agenda. We always appreciated it as we believe in transparency,” Palamau Deputy Commissioner N P Singh told The Indian Express.

Social audit of the NREGS is an effort to know field-level problems in the implementation of the scheme, including problems faced by labourers, the quality of works, payment of wages, and maintenance of attendance register.

Singh says they first got suspicious that something was wrong when Mehta didn’t come home on the night of May 14. They rang up on his mobile, but somebody else took the call and immediately switched off.

Next morning, a local paper carried an item about an unidentified body being recovered by the police. “Our suspicions grew stronger. We went to the police station, and on finding his clothes and shoes, asked the police to show us the body. But by then the policemen had already buried it. We got it exhumed,” says Singh. Mehta’s mobile phone is yet to be found.

Police sources told The Indian Express that Mehta’s body was found with a belt around his neck. Sub-Inspector Kishun Mehta, who is investigang the case, said: “I had spotted blood clots too on his skull.”

After news of Mehta’s death came out, the public hearing programme connected with the NREGS social audit was postponed to May 26. The programme organised by VSK will be presided over by Dreze. “We will dedicate the programme to Lalit,” says Manoj Singh, the VSK president.

Mehta leaves behind 28-year-old wife Afrita Tirkey, who is a teacher at Kasturba Gandhi Awasiya Vidalaya at Chinia block in neighbouring Garhwa district, and two minor sons Nikhil (4) and Bablu (1).