LYNCHBURG, Va. — The owner of a Lynchburg grocery store has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to food stamp and wire fraud, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Rajan Babbar, 59, of Lynchburg, owns Taste of India, a medium-sized grocery store in the city. He faces one count of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits fraud, three counts of wire fraud, and four counts of transacting in criminally derived property, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia.
The indictment alleges that Babbar began defrauding the SNAP program — formerly known as the Food Stamp Program — several years after registering as an approved retailer. SNAP is a federal program designed to help low- and middle-income families purchase food.
According to prosecutors, Babbar submitted paperwork in 2016 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which approved Taste of India as a SNAP retailer in December of that year.
However, starting around April 2021, SNAP redemptions at the store began to surge, the indictment states. While the store averaged approximately $5,324 in monthly SNAP sales between 2018 and 2020, those numbers jumped to an average of $53,147 per month in 2021 and 2022, and further increased to an average of $60,385 per month in 2023 and 2024.
Federal authorities allege that Babbar allowed customers to exchange their SNAP benefits for cash by ringing up fake transactions for non-existent grocery items. In exchange, he would allegedly provide cash to the customers worth about half the value of the benefits redeemed.
In addition to the criminal charges, the indictment includes a notice of forfeiture seeking to seize approximately $383,232 in funds and a commercial real estate property located in Lynchburg.
The case is being investigated by the USDA Office of Inspector General, the FBI, and the Lynchburg Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Brett is prosecuting the case.
United States Attorney Christopher R. “Todd” Gilbert, USDA-OIG Special Agent in Charge Charmeka Parker, and Acting FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen Farina jointly announced the indictment.
An indictment is a formal accusation and not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Information from a release. Edited by Dan McDermott.
