Vigilance department busted a SC/ST scholarship scam amounting to lakhs of rupees involving Mewar University, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan senior officials and local residents of Uttarkashi and Nainital during the last couple of days. Two persons-lalit Negi and Anil Rana alleged involved in the scam were arrested on Thursday and Friday respectively. Anil Rana, resident of Purola, Uttarkashi was working as a computer operator.
An FIR has been lodged against university chairman and Corporation Bank, Ghaziabad, manager and four other persons under sections 467/468/471/120b of IPC in police stations of Nainital and Uttarkashi.
The scholarship amount of about Rs 4.5 crore intended for beneficiaries in Kumaon region was not released by the social welfare department while on the other hand about `3 lakh was released by the department for Garhwal region.
Vigilance director and additional director general of police Ashok Kumar said that Delhi based advocate SK Diwakar had registered a complaint through email highlighting SC/ST scholarship scams in the Vigilance department. Two separate teams led by inspector Arvind Dangwal in Kumaon and Arjun Singh Rawat in Garhwal range had conducted investigation secretly. In course of investigation, it was revealed that some officials of Mewar University got in contact with local residents of Nainital and Uttarkashi districts and attempted to get the amount released by the department fraudulently for SC/ST scholarship for Class X students of the same category. With the help of local residents, university officials secured the names and address of beneficiaries, enrolled them only in university documentation and approached the social welfare officials sending names of the beneficiaries to secure the scholarship fund.
Investigation revealed that the listed student beneficiaries had never visited the college and were not even eligible students but persons employed as construction labourers in the district concerned. They were also unaware about the same.