The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch on Thursday arrested Prakash Chandra Rath, a former Under Secretary in-charge of the Scholarship Section of the Higher Education Department, in connection with the alleged mismanagement and irregularities in the payment of scholarship to several ineligible students.
Rath was arrested from his residence at Balianta near Bhubaneswar. A case was earlier registered against him in 2017 under Sections 409, 406 and 120 (B) of the IPC after massive bungling was detected in the payment of E-Medhabruti (Scholarship) for 2014-15.
As a result of the scam, the State exchequer had incurred losses of more than Rs 36 lakh, the EOW said.
Rath, during his tenure as the Under Secretary to the Government (Higher Education Department) in connivance with others had sanctioned scholarships to the tune of Rs 36.10 lakh in favour of as many as 235 non-bonafide and non-eligible students.Rath had also violated the existing rules in the grant of such scholarships, the EOW said. The scholarships were granted by the accused without getting any validation from the concerned institutes and colleges and also without placing the same before the Financial Advisor for sanctioning the same.
As per Government norms, the students need to apply for scholarships online on the dedicated Government portal for the scholarship. The scholarship is granted only after a detailed verification of the applications by concerned institutes, colleges which the students belong to. Only after verification of the authenticity, such applications of students are forwarded to the State Government by concerned educational institutions.
“After the receipt of applications of genuine students by the Government, it was the responsibility of the accused Under Secretary to place the same before the Financial Advisor for sanction of the scholarships. Subsequently, after necessary sanction, the scholarship amount used to be disbursed to the students. However, all such norms were violated by the accused,” an EOW release stated.