New Delhi: The Punjab Police Friday arrested Manjit Singh Bedi, just hours after the FBI announced that they had put him on their ‘Most Wanted’ list for his alleged involvement in a benefits fraud scheme that defrauded the US government of at least $600,000.
Originally from Jalandhar district, Bedi, who ran a small grocery store in Tacoma, Washington, had returned to India in April. On Friday he was taken into custody in connection with a separate case registered in May this year, Jalandhar Police Commissioner Satinder Singh told ThePrint.
Bedi was booked under the provisions of the Punjab Travel Professionals’ Regulation (PTPR) Act, which deals with illegal immigration, along with Sections 318 (4) (cheating) and 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Federal prosecutors allege Bedi swiped customers’ electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards but gave them cash instead of food for a year between March 2024 and June 2025. They allege that he kept half of the value of the benefits himself.
The FBI had offered a reward up to $150,000 for information on Bedi, a naturalised US citizen, and alleged he had fled to India via Canada this year.
“Bedi operated a small grocery store in Tacoma, Washington, called Asian Grocery Store. He purportedly sold food to participants of the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) through their EBT cards. However, instead of selling participants food, Bedi is alleged to have swiped their cards and given them cash, keeping half of the proceeds for himself,” the FBI stated.
SUBJECT ONE: MANJIT SINGH BEDI
Bedi is wanted for defrauding the U.S. of at least $600k in SNAP funds from approximately 2024 to 2025 – orchestrating a scheme out of a grocery store he operated, swiping EBT cards and keeping proceeds for himself.
Bedi has been on the run for… pic.twitter.com/a6VKRIPH5h
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 3, 2026
After being indicted for wire fraud and SNAP benefits fraud in April this year, Bedi was allowed to appear in court without being arrested. He was ordered to give up his passport and remain in Washington state.
However, the FBI alleges that Bedi drove across the border to Canada and then fled to India.
On 21 May, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Bedi in the United States District Court, Western District of Washington, Tacoma, Washington, after he was charged with Violations of Conditions of Supervision.
Bedi is a naturalised US citizen currently believed to be residing in India, the FBI alleged.
What is the SNAP programme?
According to the indictment, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federally funded food assistance program administered by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
The program is designed to provide nutritious foods to low-income families at a subsidised price using federal tax dollars. The USDA authorises over 250,000 retailers, ranging from local bodegas to large supermarket chains, to accept and redeem SNAP benefits, the indictment says.
The FNS authorises certain grocery retail stores to accept SNAP EBT cards from authorised SNAP recipients to pay for eligible food items. When the recipient’s card is swiped through an EBT terminal at an authorised retailer, the recipient is prompted to enter a personal identification number (PIN) to access his or her SNAP benefit funds, an amount that replenishes monthly.
SNAP verifies the PIN and either authorises or denies the transaction, depending on the balance in the recipient’s account. If the transaction is approved, the recipient’s SNAP account is debited for the amount of the purchase, and the SNAP funds are transferred to the retailer’s bank account to pay for the groceries.
So, when a SNAP recipient uses an EBT card to redeem benefits in Washington state, the transaction causes an interstate wire communication originating in Washington and travelling to a computer server in another state.
Participants in the SNAP program are required to comply with program rules that ensure the program serves its purpose of delivering food to needy families. For example, the rules prohibit retailers from exchanging SNAP benefits for cash or engaging in schemes to defraud the program.
The ‘fraud’
“Beginning on March 1, 2024, and continuing through on or about June 12, 2025, in Pierce County, within the Western District of Washington, Manjit Bedi, together with others known and unknown, devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud the United States Department of Agriculture, and obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises, and the concealment of material facts,” the indictment alleged.
It adds that the scheme involved Bedi converting SNAP funds for his own use through fraudulent transactions that made it appear to the United States Department of Agriculture that a SNAP recipient had purchased groceries from Asian Grocery Store, when no eligible groceries had actually been sold.
“The transactions caused the SNAP program to pay Bedi for the supposed groceries. For each such fraudulent occurrence, Bedi would split the proceeds with the SNAP recipient,” the indictment alleged.
The indictment alleged that Bedi and his wife opened Asian Grocery Store on 1 May 2023. They applied to the SNAP Program later that year, and the FNS authorized the store to accept SNAP benefits beginning 22 February 2024.
“Bedi and SNAP recipients entered into agreements under which the SNAP recipient agreed to provide Bedi with his or her EBT card and PIN. BEDI agreed to pay the SNAP recipient a portion of the value of the benefits remaining on the EBT card. For example, a recipient might provide BEDI with an EBT card loaded with $200 in benefits in return for a $100 cash payment from Bedi to the recipient,” it says.
Bedi allegedly processed false grocery sale transactions using Asian Grocery Store’s POS terminal. He then used the recipients’ SNAP EBT benefits cards to “pay for” the groceries, making it appear to the FNS that the SNAP recipient had used the EBT card to purchase real groceries from Asian Grocery Store.
This caused FNS to debit the SNAP recipients’ accounts and transfer SNAP program funds to Asian Grocery Store’s bank account in the amount of the transaction.
“Each of these transactions caused and relied upon an interstate wire signal that authorized electronic payments from the SNAP program to the Asian Grocery Store’s bank account,” the indictment said.
“Instead of providing the SNAP recipient with groceries as represented to FNS, Bedi gave the cardholder an agreed-upon amount of cash. For each occurrence, Bedi typically profited at a rate of 50 cents on each dollar of SNAP benefits redeemed,” it added.
The indictment said Bedi knew the SNAP benefits were not actually being redeemed to purchase eligible food items and he intended to deceive and defraud the SNAP program.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)