New Delhi: The CBI filed Monday a chargesheet against 12 people in connection with a Rs 220-crore scholarship scam in Himachal Pradesh, officials said.
In the chargesheet filed before special CBI court in Shimla, the agency has named five officials of KC Group of Institutions for irregularities in disbursal of pre-matric and post-matric scholarships for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities, the police said.
Six officials of the Directorate of Higher Education – Arvind Rajta, Mala Mehta, Shriram Sharma, Surinder Mohan Kanwar, Ashok Kumar, Virender Kumar – have been named as accused in the chargesheet.
The officials of KC Group include Saroj Sharma, BS Sandhu, Hitesh Gandhi, Prem Pal Gandhi, Kiran Choudhary – along with Surinder Pal Singh, who was the head cashier at the Central Bank of India, Nawanshahr, Punjab.
The CBI had registered a case in May last year on the request of Himachal Pradesh government, agency spokesperson RK Gaur stated. The probe agency had taken over the investigation of a case earlier registered by the police against unknown persons on allegations of misappropriation of funds in the disbursement of scholarships, the spokesperson added.
The case came to the CBI after an enquiry done by the Himachal Pradesh government on the complaints of students that they were not receiving scholarships which led to the unearthing of the scam
The enquiry indicated alleged involvement and complicity of officials from the education department of HP government, central government, bank officials and private institutions. The agency found that income and caste certificates were not verified.
“More than 80 per cent of the total money disbursed was allegedly granted through private institutions,” the CBI said.
After taking over investigations, the agency had conducted searches and arrested officials of education department of the state, office- bearers of the institution and a bank official, he said.
PTI
