State vigilance department arrested two more persons on Friday for their alleged involvement in the SC/ST scholarship scam, thus taking the number of the arrested to ten. The accused have been identified as Ranjeet Gandhi, native of Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), and Krishan Kumar Bharti, resident of Roorkee, Haridwar. Both were booked under sections 420/467/468/471/120b of IPC, sections 3/2 SC/ST Act and other sections. They had been absconding to evade police arrest.
State vigilance department had earlier arrested eight persons for their alleged involvement in the same soon after the issue came to light. They were subsequently sent to jail.
The accused had collected certificates from the students on pretext of helping them with admission at the Mewar University, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan.
Investigation revealed that the scam is spread over 15 other states aside from Uttarakhand. Some more might be arrested with further progress of the investigation, the state vigilance officials said. Investigation further revealed that aside from a section of the university officials, a senior manager of Corporation Bank, Vasundhara, Ghaziabad and an NGO-Pravitiya Vikas Samiti, based at Garampani in Nainital, were involved in the scam.
The vigilance team has so far arrested operator of an NGO Garampani lalit Negi, Mewar University assistant examination controller Dilip Menoriya, clerk Anis Ahmad and accountants Gaurav Goyal, Manmohan Singh and Dr Shamim Ahmad.
Notably, in connection with the case of the alleged misappropriation of scholarship funds meant for the students of the reserved category from Uttarakhand, the social welfare department has black-listed Mewar University, Rajasthan. The action followed after the university officials failed to answer satisfactorily the show-cause notice served on them by the department.