3 Delhi coaching centre owners among 9 held in ₹37-crore scam

Delhi's Anti-Corruption Branch arrested 9, including coaching institute owners, for creating fake documents to fraudulently claim ₹37 crore from a govt scheme.

The Anti Corruption Branch of Delhi have arrested nine people, including owners and directors of three coaching institutes, for allegedly producing fake student documents to take ₹37 crore from the government under Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana from 2018 to 2021, officials said on Friday.

During the investigation, when student data was collected, it was found that there were duplicate records. Photo for representation. (Sanjeev Verma/HT File)

The ACB said more than 22,000 students and 43 coaching centres were enrolled on paper under the scheme started by the previous Aam Aadmi government in 2018-19, but there were major discrepancies.

According to the ACB, a team under assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Jarnail Singh received a complaint from Delhi government’s department of SC/ST welfare in August last year after an audit of the discontinued scheme.

The head of ACB, Vikramjit Singh, told HT that “Investigation revealed that this Yojana was initiated in 2017. The scheme was for SC/ST/OBC and other EWS category students. Coaching fee and a stipend for students was to be paid to the institutes by the department. Investigation revealed that these institutes had obtained ₹37.20 crores under this Yojana. It was mandatory for all institutes to maintain a separate bank account for this Yojana but it was not complied with at all.”

“We found that forged documents regarding admissions of students in this Yojana were created and produced by institutes for claiming funds. Also, department of SC/ST welfare, also did not check/regulate the flowing of funds in wrong hands. We also found that stipend amounts received by institutes had not been disbursed to students in several cases. Many also sent the students to local tuitions which is a major violation,” added Singh.

Officials said they contacted owners and directors but received no response. “Some even tried to transfer money after we lodged a case,” said an officer aware of the details of the case.

An AAP spokesperson said neither the ACB complaint nor their notice named any AAP leaders or the AAP government. The party refused to give a comment on the arrests saying private people had been arrested.

Following this, on April 29, the ACB arrested nine people in connection with the case and they have been sent to 14 days in judicial custody. The arrested accused have been identified as owners of a popular Mukherjee Nagar institute and civil services and IIT JEE institute directors and staffers from across Delhi.

One of the arrested accused, Ravindra Singh, director of Ravindra Institute of Indian Civil Services (OPC) Pvt. Ltd, was arrested this week. HT reached out to a coaching staffer who said “The allegations are false. We have not done any such thing. Sir has been wrongly picked up. We don’t even know about the arrest properly.”

Another accused is Harshit, a senior faculty at Momentum NEET IIT Academy. A staffer from his coaching centre said they are not aware of the arrest and refused to comment.

Two other accused, Shambhu Sharan, proprietor of Kiran Institute of Career Achievement and Sanjay Kumar, a staffer there, have also been arrested in the case.

HT spoke to Sharan’s younger brother who said, “I am not aware of my brother’s arrest. I live in Pune. I did not know he has been accused of all this. He has been running the classes for years”