The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) probe found 130 colleges running professional courses without recognition with the help of over two dozen senior Government officials of several departments including education, social welfare, backward class welfare, divyangjan empowerment etc.
The EOW already registered a case against 130 colleges running professional courses without recognition, the
investigation has now also covered those officers who were
posted in Mathura from
2015-16 to 2019-20 when the scam took place.
These include the Basic Siksha Adhikari (BSAs), District Social Welfare Officer, District Backward Class Welfare Officer, Divyangjan Empowerment Officer and employees, including even District Inspectors of Schools.
Reports said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Baldev Assembly Constituency in Mathura, Puran Prakash had complained to the Government about the scholarship and fee reimbursement scam that took place in the district from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
The Government, after finding the allegations true, had handed over a probe into the hands of the sleuths of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) Kanpur Division. The Investigation Officer (IO), sub-inspector Mohammad Shakir, had subsequently registered a case against a total of 130 educational institutions of Mathura in Kanpur.
In this, a report was filed in May last against 24 officers including the then seven DIOS Arun Kumar Dubey, Bhaskar Mishra, Ashok Kumar Singh, Mukesh Kumar Raijada, Indra Prakash Solanki, Krishnapal Singh Solanki, Dr Rajendra Singh, Senior Assistant Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Assistant BSA Raghuvendra Singh, Social Welfare Officer Karunesh Tripathi, Uma Shankar Sharma, Vinod Shankar Tiwari, Puran Chand Sharma, Rahul Kumar Assistant Development Officer, Naveen Malhotra Junior Assistant, Yogesh Kumar, Senior Assistant Giriraj Sharma, Mahavir Singh, Junior Assistant Man Singh Sharma, Principal Assistant Shriom Sharma, District Backward Class Welfare Officer Shyam Sundar Iknoriya, Kuldeep Mishra, Disabled People Empowerment Officer Dr Ajit Kumar, and Junior Assistant Sanjeev Kumar.
It is alleged that by colluding with education mafias and college operators, irregularities in scholarship and fee reimbursement were ignored by the said officers.
Due to their negligence or alleged connivance, a scam of hundreds of crores of rupees took place in scholarship.
The IO has now served notices to the above officers to clear their role in the above scam so that further legal proceedings can be initiated against all those found to be involved in the scam.
Sources said that on the demand of EOW, District Magistrate of Mathura Chandra Prakash Singh had deployed a team of 45 officers to help the IO to investigate this matter.
Interestingly, the investigating officer during the probe so far found 22 colleges who received grants were lying closed.
The investigation also revealed that many such schools were also given recognition where there was no trace of the schools and they exist just on papers. Sources confirmed that notices have been also issued to many reputed institutions in the district for conducting professional courses without recognition.
The IO will now go through verification of the complete details related to scholarship of each college.
Along with this, he will also summon the scholarship receivers to confirm whether even the students exist just on papers or they collected the benefit through forged documents.