Scholarship scam: ED team conducts raids

New Delhi, August 30

The Enforcement Directorate today conducted searches at the premises of officials of the Himachal Pradesh education department and private universities and a few others as part of its probe in a case under provisions of the PMLA linked to an alleged scam in grant of scholarships to SC, ST and OBC students in the state.

According to an ED statement, the searches were conducted at 24 locations in Himachal, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi. “Unaccounted cash of Rs 75 lakh was seized and Rs 2.55 crore lying in bank accounts frozen,” it said.

Premises of officials working in the state education department and banks, and owners of entities related to private universities and institutions, who were involved in “large-scale misappropriation of disbursement of scholarship funds”, were covered as part of the search operation, the ED said.

The ED’s case under provisions of the PMLA is based on a CBI FIR with regard to scholarship disbursed by the Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh, under the post-matric scholarship scheme for SC, ST and OBC students.