Scholarship scam: Headmasters, bank employees & middlemen siphon off funds

MINORITIES' SCHOLARSHIP SCAM

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: A section of headmasters, bank employees and middlemen had played the key role in illegal siphoning off crores of fund meant for pre-matric scholarship for students belonging to minority communities in Assam.

This has come to the light during the investigation into the multi-crores minorities scholarship scam conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Assam Police. The CID on Thursday filed a charge sheet against 32 persons involved in the scam. The scam took place between 2018 and 2020 in five minority dominated districts.

The entire modus-operandi was mainly carried out by some headmasters, operators at Customer Service Points (CSPs) of banks and middlemen. The CSPs are the places where bank accounts for the beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme can be opened and cash withdrawn.

"The headmasters, teachers and other school staffs gave the list of eligible students and the middlemen apply online on behalf of the students for the scholarship scheme. With fake signatures the middlemen opened bank accounts in the name of beneficiaries and they link the scholarships to these accounts using their mobile numbers. New mobile handsets and SIM cards were purchased to create new numbers which were later linked with fake bank accounts. One Time Passwords (OTPs) were created to operate the fake bank accounts and thus money meant scholarship was withdrawn. A section of bank employees were often in the knowledge of such fraudulent withdrawals," a source closely associated with the CID probe said.

On Thursday (February 4, 2020) the CID submitted the charge sheet before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Kamrup (M). The charge sheet has been filed under the sections 120(B)/406/409/419/420/468/471/109/201/34 of the Indian Penal Code and 66C/66D of the Information Technology Act.

The charge sheet runs into 7386 pages. In addition to this the case diary of the case runs into 1880 pages. Altogether 220 persons have been named as prosecution witnesses. The statements of 10 witnesses have also been recorded by Judicial Magistrate under the provision of section 164 Cr.P.C.

The CID has submitted the charge sheet in 86 days from the date of first arrest in the case in 2020. It has been filed within stipulated period time while all 32 arrested accused persons are still in jail (judicial custody).

In 2020 the CID had registered a case on the basis of written FIR lodged on August 28 in the same year Mahmood Hassan, Director, Assam Minorities Development Board and State Nodal Officer, Pre-Matric Scholarship for Minorities, Assam.

Altogether 32 including 4 headmasters, 2 EDPs (Electronic Data Processor), 2 Assistant Teachers, 2 Presidents of SMCs (School Management Committee), 8 owners of CSPs (customer Service Points) of Banks and 14 Middlemen were arrested in connection with the case.

While in maximum cases scholarship money was siphoned off keeping the genuine beneficiaries completely in dark, in some cases few minority students were given smaller amount to keep their mouths shut.

Also Read: CID arrested two more persons in Pre-Matric scholarship scam

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