In the scholarship scam in which crores of rupees were embezzled by private entities under the pretext of awarding scholarships to students from scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST), the SIT team, formed under Inspector General (IG) Sanjay Gunjyal, has registered a case against Swami Purnanand Degree College of Technical Education in Tehri district.

According to the information provided by police headquarters, in the preliminary investigation, it was found that the educational institute concerned is operating since the year 2012 and was awarded scholarship by the social welfare officer of Tehri in the year 2014-15.

The college had applied for scholarship to 53 students from scheduled caste in response to which a sum of Rs 15,51,000 was released for 47 students at the rate of Rs 33,000 per student.

In the investigation, it was found that the institute only released the scholarship money to 25 students.

Among the remaining 22 students, nine were never admitted in the college while investigation is underway to ascertain the then status of the remaining 13 students.

These 25 students took admission in the Bachelors of Science course but left the institute before appearing in their exams. In the institute documents it was found that the mobile phone numbers and addresses of the students were not clear.

The admission of all these students were done by one man identified as Narendra Panwar.

The bank accounts of these students were opened in Urban Almora Co-operative bank situated at Muni Ki Reti.

In the bank accounts it was shown that Rs 33,000 was transferred to each of the 25 bank accounts after which a letter was sent by the educational institute on behalf of the students to transfer Rs  30,000 from their account to the institutes account in Canara Bank, Rishikesh.

The rest Rs 2,500 from each account was shown to be withdrawn by the students themselves.

The SIT identified the 25 students who had accounts in Almora Co-Operative Bank, Rishikesh through the mobile phone numbers in their KYC forms.

All these students belong to the Maletha village at Devprayag in Tehri district. They told the team that in the year 2014-15 some people came under the pretext of providing admission in Purnanand College free of cost and that they took their signatures on some documents. These students never went to the college or gave exams.

The students said that sometime later in the same year they were asked to come to Almora Co-Operative Bank, Rishikesh and were given Rs  2,500 each.

During the investigation it was found that the institute had embezzled around Rs 14,88,500 in connivance with social welfare department.

The case has been filed against the institute under the section 420/409 of the Indian Penal Code.

It is pertinent to mention here that since September 26, a total of nine cases have been registered against

private institutes among which four have been registered in Udham Singh Nagar, three in Nainital and two in Tehri.