Scholarship scam busted in Hoshiarpur, cops register 2 FIRs

Two separate cases of minority scholarship fraud, involving the misuse of school unique identification (UIDs) credentials to apply for scholarships for non-existent students, have come to the fore in Hoshiarpur district. In the first case, Bullowal Block Primary Education Officer Rajkumar filed a complaint against Institute Nodal Officers (INO) Santokh Singh, Jamaludin and Muneer Raza, who allegedly submitted fake applications for 62 students under the minority scholarship scheme during the academic years 2021–22 and 2022–23. The applications were fraudulently filed using the UIDs of students at the Nangal Klalan school. Out of the 62 only on such student existed in the said school. The police have registered an FIR under various Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the accused. Investigations are underway to determine the extent of the financial misappropriation and the involvement of other individuals or institutions.

Advertisement

In a separate incident, William, the president of St Mathews School, Puhiran, lodged a complaint with the Model Town police, alleging that the school’s UID was misused in the academic year 2019–20 to file minority scholarship applications for 11 fictitious students. The complaint states that the matter had come to the fore when employees of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment had come to verify the credentials of the students who had applied for the scholarship by an individual named Siswa Lamba acting as INO of the school. He said that someone had impersonated the school’s INO to submit the fraudulent applications. The school’s records showed no such students, nor any teacher or staff member by that name. The Model Town police have filed an FIR against the unidentified accused under various Sections of the BNS. The authorities concerned are now examining how such misuse of official school credentials was possible and whether there were any more such cases in the district.