CBI files 2 separate supplementary charge sheets in scholarship scam in Himachal

Shimla, October 27

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The CBI on Friday filed two separate supplementary charge sheets against ten people in multi-crore scam in grant of scholarships to schedule caste (SC), schedule tribe (ST) and other backward class (OBC) students of Himachal Pradesh, the agency said in a statement.

The supplementary charge sheet was filed against ten people, including private individuals, directors of educational institutions, employees and officials of the Directorate of Higher Education, the statement said.

The scholarship scam started in 2012-13 when the scholarships for pre-matric and post-matric SC, ST and OBC students under 36 schemes were not paid to eligible students and 90 per cent money of the scholarships was paid to 28 private institutions.

The scam was unearthed following reports that the students of government schools in tribal Spiti valley in Himachal’s Lahaul and Spiti district had not been paid the scholarship for the last five years.

Searches were earlier conducted at around 30 places at the premises of some people which led to recovery of incriminating documents and 19 accused, including chairman, deputy chairman, directors, employees of educational Institutes, bank officials and officials of education department, Shimla were arrested, according to the statement.

The enforcement directorate (ED) is also investigating the case to probe the angle of money laundering and had also made arrests in the past.

The ED had initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by personation), 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery in electronic documents) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of IPC on May 8, 2019.

The CBI investigations had revealed that fake letterheads to show false affiliation were used by several educational institutions to mislead the education department, which failed to ensure the physical verification of infrastructure and strength of students.

The other discrepancies included non-submission of Aadhaar numbers of students by institutions, using same Aadhaar accounts to withdraw scholarships of multiple students who did not exist, and opening of fake accounts in three nationalised banks.

Wife of the then Superintendent Grade-II, Department of Higher Education (dealing with disbarment of scholarship) Arvind Rajta (earlier arrested by the CBI), the key accused, had 33 per cent stakes in nine fake institutions which were given over Rs over 28 crore of scholarship money.