GUWAHATI: In a sensational development, a college principal and four others were arrested by the police for their involvement in misappropriating huge amount of scholarship money meant to be distributed amongst needy students in the Barpeta district of Assam.
The five of them have fraudulently abstracted crores of rupees allotted for the Ishan Uday Scholarship and another scholarship by the Union Ministry for Minority Development for supporting students belonging to minority communities. Notably, the Ishan Uday Scholarship is awarded by the University Grants Commission to meritorious students.
The vicious circle behind the multi-crore scam is reported to have drained crores of rupees by mentioning names of ghost students in several colleges in the Barpeta and Bongaigaon districts of Assam.
It was earlier on November 2 that the Barpeta Police arrested two persons involved. Two persons identified as Jeherul Islam and Habibur Rahman, both residents of Jaherpam village were arrested by a team from Barpeta Sadar Police Station for siphoning off crores of rupees meant for needy students. The police have seized laptops, computers, and documents from the arrested duo.
During interrogation of the arrested duo, Jeherul Islam and Habibur Rahman. After their arrest, the names of other five came to light. It was also discovered that Manik Ali, the Principal of Barpeta Bongaigaon College of Langla was involved. After that, the police arrested Ali along with a junior assistant of Barpeta Bongaigaon College college. Besides that, two other junior assistants from other colleges were also apprehended.
Meanwhile, Barpeta District Police is investigating the involvement of respective Principals and staff of some other colleges in the district. They are coordinating with the bank authorities so as to uncover other hidden links in the case.
Notably, the fraudulent circle has been operating since 2018 and has drained crores of money meant for scholarship.
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