CBI files chargesheet against 12 in Rs 250-crore HP scholarship scam

Bhanu P Lohumi

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 30

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed chargesheet against 12 persons, including six officials of Directorate of Higher education, five key functionaries of K C Group of Institutions, Pandoga, Una, and head cashier of Central Bank of India, Nawanshahr, Punjab, in the Rs 250-crore scholarship scam.

The CBI had registered the case under Sections 409, 419, 465, 466 and 471 of IPC in May 2019 and conducted raids at educational institutions in Himachal and neighbouring states and arrested three persons, including the then Superintendent Grade-II, Department of Higher Education (dealing with disbarment of scholarship), Vice Chairman of a private group of institutions and the then head cashier at Central Bank of India in connection on January 3 last.

The scam started in 2012-13 when the scholarships for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward classes for pre-matric and post matric students under 36 schemes were not paid to eligible students and 80 per cent scholarships money was paid to private institutions.

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

As many as 272 institutions are under scanner for opening fake accounts in banks, giving admissions to ineligible candidates as 80 per cent scholarships money was paid to private institutions and scholarship of 32,000 genuine students was not credited in their accounts.

The chargesheet was filed in the special CBI court in Shimla.

The officials of Directorate of Higher Education, Shimla, included Arvind Rajta, then Dealing Hand/Superintendent, Mala Mehta, then Drawing and disbursing officer-cum-Assistant Director Shriram Sharma, Surinder Mohan Kanwar, Ashok Kumar and Virender Kumar, (the then superintendent Grade I cum DDO).

Other accused included Saroj Sharma and BS Sandhu the then Campus Director, Hitesh Gandhi, then Vice Chairman and owner Prem Pal Gandhi, then Chairman and owner, Kiran Choudhary, then Officiating Principal of K C Group of Institutions, Pandoga, Una, and Surinder Pal Singh, then Head Cashier, Central Bank of India, Nawanshahr.