Two years after a multi-crore scholarship scam came to light , the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested three persons including former superintendent of department of higher education, vice-chairman of a private group of institutions and former head cashier of a national bank.
“Arvind Rajta, the then superintendent of department of higher education, Hitesh Gandhi, vice-chairman of KC Group of Institutions and SP Singh, the then head cashier of Central Bank of India, were arrested from different places,” said CBI Spokesman Abhishekh Gaur.
After the scam came to fore in 2018, the government had urged CBI to intervene. Himachal’s education department had registered a case against unidentified people last year and later the probe was handed over to CBI. It was on May 7, 2019, that the CBI registered a case.
SCAM REPORTED FROM SPITI VALLEY
The scam was unearthed following reports that students of government schools in the tribal Spiti valley had not been paid the scholarship amount.
The internal inquiry conducted by the education department revealed that more than 2,38,089 eligible students belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and other backward classes were deprived of scholarships under various centrally sponsored schemes, while ineligible candidates were given admissions and fictitious bank accounts were opened for payment of scholarships by various institutions.
The scam remained hidden as people who created the online portal for disbursement of the scholarship amount and those who actually transferred the amount were the same, the inquiry pointed.
{{/usCountry}}The scam remained hidden as people who created the online portal for disbursement of the scholarship amount and those who actually transferred the amount were the same, the inquiry pointed.
{{/usCountry}}Scholarships amounting to ₹226 crore were disbursed through fake admissions and money was deposited in bank accounts both within and outside the state. Some fake accounts in Haryana, Chandigarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were tracked. CBI sleuths detected that the scholarship scam was being carried under a systematic racket by a set of employees of government and private institutions.
The government employees charged 10% commission from private institutes for not disbursing the scholarships.
Preliminary investigation revealed that 250 students took admissions in Karnataka and Kangra district in centres of a private university. At the time of admission, the university had promised to provide scholarship to students hailing from SC/ST and OBC categories. Universities had announced that scholarship money will be transferred to their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. But the money never reached the beneficiaries.
Himachal Pradesh Police last year in November had registered an FIR alleging that serious irregularities took place in disbursal of pre-matric and post-matric scholarships of more than ₹220 crore between 2013-14 and 2016-17. The CBI had earlier conducted searches at the location of 21 private institutes in May last year after registering the case.