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Former director of J&K tribal affairs dept, others booked for scholarship ‘scam’
The case was registered under section 5(1)(c) (d) and section 5(2) of J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006 and section 120B of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), a spokesperson said
The J&K anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Monday registered a case against former director of tribal affairs department and others for alleged violations in implementing the post-matric scholarships for ST candidates, said officials.
Former director MS Choudhary has now retired.
The case was registered under section 5(1)(c) (d) and section 5(2) of J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006 and section 120B of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), a spokesperson said.
Along with Choudhary, others booked include Shanaz Akhtar Malik, Humera Banu, Firdous Ahmed, Sham Lal Targotra, Jaffer Hussain Wani, Parshotam Bharadwaj, Ramneek Kour and Puneet Mahajan. Most of the accused are officials from private institutes located in Jammu region.
The spokesperson said the case was registered after allegations of gross violations of guidelines and release of crores of rupees to unrecognised institutes for unrecognised courses while implementing post matric scholarship.
Under the post matric scholarship scheme, the Centre grants financial aid of ₹18,000 per student to ST candidates, along with ₹2,300 maintenance allowance.
The private institutes located at Jammu district managed to get documents of ST students hailing from far-flung areas and submitted them to the directorate of tribal affairs. The officials, without verifying the institutes, disbursed scholarships worth crores between 2014 and 2018 into the bank accounts of these institutes, the spokesperson added.
Further verification found payments were released to students who did not even apply for these courses.
Though some students sought admission under the scheme, they never attended or partially attended the computer courses, the officials said, adding that the benefits were paid in full even against the names of these students.
“Some fake bank accounts were opened for ST students without their consent and knowledge as it was mandatory to fill account number in the form for maintenance allowance. A few of the institutes did not have accreditation, but fees were disbursed to them,” the official said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
