Delhi Police crime branch has arrested former Director and Deputy Director (Finance) of Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) in connection with the 'scholarship scam' in which 11 accused persons were arrested. They were able to siphon off over `50 lakh scholarship money in three years from 2015-2017.
The CCRT which works under the ministry of culture provides scholarships to young children all over India. Police said that both the directors have been sent to judicial custody.
The accused former director GC Joshi and deputy director (finance) Anil Kohli were arrested for siphoning scholarship money disbursed for children in various fields of art. The scam came to light when the former director Joshi himself placed a complaint in Dwarka Police Station.
The then director of CCRT alleged that there were major frauds in the department in the name of scholarships. "During this investigation, the involvement of GC Joshi and Anil Kohli also came to light and they were arrested on Saturday," Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Dr Ajit Kumar Singla stated.
Crime Branch reported that in August-2011, the accused GC Joshi appointed the earlier arrested accused Sandip as an IT Programmer on the contractual basis and attached him with the Accounts Section, which was under the supervision of Deputy Director (Finance) Anil Kohli.
"In Accounts Section, the accused Sandip became acquainted with the loopholes and procedure of payments to the scholarship holders and planned a scam. He roped some of his friends, co-staff, the former Director and Deputy Director (Finance) in his plan offering them certain percentages as commission. In this way, more than `50 lakh were peculated by the accused persons during the year 2015," said Singla.
It was in 2016, when a dispute arose between Joshi, Kohli and Sandip over their share as there was lack of currency in banks during demonetization. Finally on March 8, 2018, Joshi terminated the services of Sandip prior to the completion of his contractual period and filed a complaint against him in Dwarka Police Station accusing him of the fraud, Singla said.
