CBI files charge sheet against 12 in Himachal scholarship scam

The CBI on Monday filed a charge sheet against 12 people in connection with a Rs 220-crore scholarship scam in Himachal Pradesh, officials said. In the charge sheet filed before special CBI court in Shimla, the agency has named five officials of K C Group of Institutions for irregularities in disbursal of pre-matric and post-matric scholarships for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities, the police said.

Six officials of the Directorate of Higher Education -- Arvind Rajta, Mala Mehta, Shriram Sharma, Surinder Mohan Kanwar, Ashok Kumar, Virender Kumar -- have been named as accused in the charge sheet. The officials of K C Group include Saroj Sharma, B S Sandhu, Hitesh Gandhi, Prem Pal Gandhi, Kiran Choudhary -- along with Surinder Pal Singh, who was the head cashier at the Central Bank of India, Nawanshahr, Punjab. The CBI had registered a case in May last year on the request of Himachal Pradesh government, agency spokesperson R K Gaur said.

It had taken over the investigation of a case earlier registered by the police against unknown persons on allegations of misappropriation of funds in the disbursement of scholarships, the spokesperson added. The case came to the CBI after an enquiry done by the state government on the complaints of students that they were not receiving scholarships which led to the unearthing of the scam The enquiry indicated alleged involvement and complicity of officials from the education department of Himachal Pradesh government, central government, bank officials and private institutions.

The agency found that income and caste certificates were not verified. "More than 80 per cent of the total money disbursed was allegedly granted through private institutions," the CBI said.

After taking over investigations, the agency had conducted searches and arrested officials of education department of the state, office bearers of the institution and a bank official, he said..