Former director, 7 institutes booked in scholarship scam in Tribal Affairs Dept

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday formally registered a case against the former Director of Tribal Affairs, Jammu and Kashmir, and seven others over allegations of misappropriation of crores of rupees under a post-matric scholarship scheme.

According to the ACB, the case has been registered under the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, Svt. 2006 against MS Choudhary, then Director Tribal Affairs (now retired), Shanaz Akhtar Malik, owner of Catalog Computers; Humera Banu and Firdous Ahmed of Chirag Institute of IT; Sham Lal Targotra of JKS-Industrial Training Institute (ITI); Jindar Mehlu, a resident of RS Pura; Jaffer Hussain Wani of Ever Green Institute of Computer Technology; Parshotam Bharadwaj of Global Institute of IT; Ramneek Kour of Pankaj Memorial Charitable Trust for Education and Research; and Puneet Mahajan of Supertech (India) Computer Education.

The ACB stated that the case pertains to gross violations in disbursing government funds meant for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students under the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme sponsored by the Government of India. The scheme aimed to provide financial support, including Rs 18,000 per student and Rs 2,300 as a maintenance allowance, to enable ST students to pursue post-matric or post-secondary education.

During verification, it was found that from 2014 to 2018, several private institutes in Jammu submitted documents of ST students from remote areas to the Directorate of Tribal Affairs. Without verifying the authenticity of these institutes or their infrastructure, officials released scholarship funds worth crores directly into their bank accounts.

Further investigation revealed that many students, in whose names the funds were released, had neither sought admission nor attended the computer courses. In some cases, students partially attended courses, yet the full tuition fee was credited to the institutes. One institute even managed to increase enrollment by submitting forms using documents of ST students without their consent.

Additionally, fake bank accounts were created in students’ names to fulfill the requirement for maintenance allowance disbursement. Some of the institutes lacked proper accreditation with NIELIT, yet funds were still allocated.

The ACB concluded that officials of the Directorate of Tribal Affairs, in criminal conspiracy with institute owners, manipulated records and violated scheme guidelines, resulting in the misappropriation of government funds and causing significant loss to the public exchequer.