The Congress-era SC-ST student scholarship scam in Uttarakhand appears to be getting bigger with each layer being taken off by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), exposing the nexus between the decision-makers in the Social Welfare Department, middlemen and management of education institutes which resulted in the swindling of over Rs 500 crore by way of registering ghost students and using fake certificates to release government funds.
A private group of educational institutes in Roorkee is the latest to face the heat in the scam as the ED has provisionally attached one immovable property worth Rs 1 crore (approximately), under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, belonging to the Vardhman Educational Society which runs Institute of Management Studies, Roorkee and IMS Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
According to complaints received by the department, middlemen used to collect SC & ST certificates of students in areas like Chakrata and Jaunsar—in exchange for sums amounting around Rs 10,000—which were used by institutions offering technical and professional courses to admit “bogus” students. Even the area Assistant Social Welfare official of the Uttarakhand government used to attest these admissions as genuine. This was followed by issuing of a scholarship cheque by the social welfare official and the money used to get deposited in the institute’s bank account, instead of the “beneficiary student’s” bank account.
ED investigators said that to understand the functioning of the five-member SC-ST Cell run by Institute of Management Studies, Roorkee, they might contact members of the existing panel at the institute.
Interestingly, according to the documents uploaded on the institute’s website, the current panel, constituted in 2021, has institute’s director D. Baby Moses as its chairperson but one of the five members of the SC-ST Cell has been identified as Arvind, a peon, who has also signed in a column for panel members. Sources said officials of the institute, set up in 1996, will have to face some tough questions.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Ravinder Jugran, who filed a petition in the SC-ST scholarship scam case at the Uttarakhand High Court in September 2017, has sought measures to prevent any attempt to influence the probe by the accused who are out on bail.
The ED initiated investigation into the case on the basis of FIR registered in Sidcul police station in Haridwar under various sections of IPC 1860 against members of Vardhman Educational Society.
Initial investigation revealed that Institute of Management Studies, Roorkee and IMS Institute of Technology, Roorkee, allegedly, had fraudulently received a huge amount of scholarship money in the name of SC-ST students from Social Welfare Department, Haridwar, for the period 2013-14 to 2016-17. This was the time when a Congress government was in power in the state.
It was also revealed that the institution allegedly had made false claims to obtain scholarships under SC-ST Scholarship Scheme. The amounts of scholarship in the form of personal expenses of students and tuition fees of college have been credited into the bank account of the college.
The said amount has been siphoned off allegedly by the Chairman and other members of the Vardhman Educational Society, and caused huge financial loss to the public exchequer. ED investigation further revealed that this ill-gotten money was further diverted allegedly to either the bank accounts of Vardhman Educational Society or to other accounts of the college and was utilised for the expenses of the trustees.
In a related matter, the ED had attached a piece of land and the building in Haridwar worth Rs 5.62 crore of another educational trust last year under the anti-money laundering law as part of a probe into an alleged SC-ST scholarship scam. The assets belonged to the Seth Bimal Prasad Jain educational trust which runs the Phonics Group of Institutions in Roorkee.
The ED alleges that the Phonics Group of Institutions “fraudulently” received a huge amount of scholarship in the name of SC-ST students from the social welfare department, Haridwar, for the period 2011-12 to 2014-2015.
“The institution made false claims to obtain this scholarship amount which was embezzled and siphoned off by the Phonics Group of institutions, Roorkee, run by Seth Bimal Prasad Jain Educational Trust, through its trustees and caused huge financial loss to the public exchequer with wrongful gain to themselves,” the ED alleged.
This money was further diverted to either the bank accounts of the educational trust or to other accounts of the college and was utilised for the expenses of the trust and “withdrawn in cash”, it alleged.
Earlier, the ED had attached property worth Rs 1.45 crore (land situated in Haridwar) belonging to Wali Gram Udhyog Vikas Sansthan, Roorkee, which runs Techword Wali Gram Udhyog Vikas Sansthan group of institutions in the same case, it said.