GUWAHATI: Chief Minister's Special Vigilance Cell (CM’s SVC) made a major breakthrough in the 105-crore SCERT scam case when SVC sleuths nabbed suspended IAS officer Sewali Devi Sharma and her contractor son-in-law Ajit Pal Singh from Cross Lane Hotel in Ajmer of Rajasthan early on Monday.
Both of the accused were absconding since the Rs 105 crore funds embezzlement case was unearthed in State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) of Assam.
Apart from SCERT Director-in-Charge Sewali Devi Sharma and contractor Ajit Paul Singh, the team from the CM’s SVC also apprehended another person named Rahul Amin from the hotel and one house help. All those apprehended by the sleuths will be brought to Assam on securing transit remand, after the accused are produced before a court in Rajasthan.
Earlier, the CM’s SVC had arrested six people involved in the massive scam and then produced them before the special judge’s court in Guwahati.
The six accused, who were produced before the court included Congress leader Rajesh Joshi, apart from Lakhinarayan Sonowal, Jayanta Lahkar, Ramizuddin Ahmed, Saranga More and Rubul Ali.
It should be mentioned here that Lakhinarayan Sonowal is the retired SCERT Deputy Director, while Rajesh Joshi is the son-in-law of suspended SCERT chief Sewali Devi Sarma. The other three are SCERT officials.
Reports suggest that the 105- crore SCERT scam involves funds being spent in lieu of offering a Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.) course under the Open Distance Learning (ODL) system of the Council. The alleged financial irregularities are said to have taken place from 2017 to 2022.
According to sources, it is apparent that suspended Director-in-Charge of SCERT, Sewali Devi Sharma, allotted most of the lucrative contracts to her family members, including members of her in-laws family. In a surprising revelation, according to the sources, it was found that many of these firms belonging to the contractors used fake Goods and Services Tax (GST) numbers.
It is alleged that Sewali Devi transferred funds from the official bank accounts to the accounts of other employees and then withdrew the money from those accounts. It has also become apparent that Sewali Devi Sarma had flouted SCERT guidelines and rules and started 347 centres for the D.El.Ed. course under Open Distance Learning (ODL) scheme, 288 more than the number of centres given permission by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). A majority of these centres were allegedly fake ones.
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