Delhi ACB to probe AAP’s student aid scheme: Govt

CM Gupta said the budget for the scheme was only ₹15 crore, but the AAP government pushed forward files with “fake bills” worth ₹142 crore.

New Delhi

Delhi home minister Ashish Sood addresses a press conference. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Lieutenant governor VK Saxena has ordered the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) to probe alleged irregularities amounting to ₹145 crore in the Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana run by the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, state home minister Ashish Sood said on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference at the Delhi Secretariat, Sood said the LG’s order came on the recommendation of chief minister Rekha Gupta to initiate an investigation into the alleged scam. CM Gupta said the budget for the scheme was only ₹15 crore, but the AAP government pushed forward files with “fake bills” worth ₹142 crore.

“In the year 2021-22, serious financial irregularities have come to light in the ‘Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana ’ run by the AAP government. The budget for this scheme was only ₹15 crore, but the AAP government pushed forward files with fake bills amounting to over ₹145 crore. The Aam Aadmi Party has looted the future of Dalit children by seizing power in the name of Dalits. They have insulted Babasaheb’s ideals and tainted the sacred field of education with their corrupt policies. Claims were made in the name of Dalit children who were supposed to receive coaching, without documents, applications without signatures, and the claims of many institutions were found to be 100% fake. The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) will now investigate these financial irregularities. Very soon, the truth will be separated from the lies,” CM Gupta said in a post on X.

In response, the AAP called the move “weaponisation of state machinery” by the BJP government to target the Opposition with “one case after another”.

LG office could not be contacted for comment.

Launched in 2018, the AAP sought to provide financial assistance and specialised free coaching to meritorious students of SC, ST, OBC, EWS and minority communities to prepare for competitive exams and professional courses through the Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana.

Home minister Sood said the AAP turned the scheme into “a nexus of corruption.”

“In 2018, 4,900 students were supposed to receive coaching, and in 2019, the number was 2,071. However, during the Covid-19 crisis, when the public was suffering financially, these leaders colluded with the coaching mafia to perpetrate a massive fraud. Originally allocated a budget of ₹15 crore, the scheme saw a massive spike in billing, with coaching institutions submitting claims of ₹145 crore between July 2021 and August 2022,” Sood said at the press conference.

“Shockingly, no due process was followed, and the AAP government subsequently asked these institutions to seek legal redressal for payments. Upon inquiry, it was revealed that coaching institutions provided data for 13,000 students, but only 3,000 could be verified. The rest had no supporting documentation or register entries,” Sood said.

The minister said that the average coaching fee ranged from ₹1 lakh for UPSC exams to ₹10,000 for interviews. “Even if all verified students had taken the most expensive course, the total cost wouldn’t exceed ₹30 crore—making the ₹145 crore claim completely unjustified,” Sood said.

SC/ST welfare minister Ravinder Indraj Singh said that 35 private coaching institutions are under scrutiny, as many of them failed to provide verifiable data even for 100 students.

In a statement, the AAP said: “Despite enjoying all the power, the BJP has done nothing for the people of Delhi except weaponise state machinery to file case after case against AAP leaders. BJP is dismantling a system that was running efficiently…The BJP should move beyond rhetoric and obsession with vendetta.”