NEW DELHI: Following the conclusion of its investigation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday has filed charge-sheets in the Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam and named 20 institutions and 105 individuals as accused.According to the charge-sheet, those who have been made accused, include the owners of educational institutes, the staff of Directorate of Higher Education, Shimla; bank officials and other private persons involved in the misuse of funds under scholarship and reimbursement scheme of fees launched by the Centre and implemented through the state government to help the students of SC, ST and OBC categories.The CBI alleged that the scam started in 2012-13, when the scholarships for SC, ST and OBC students of the state for pre-metric and post-metric students under 36 schemes were not paid to the eligible students.Noting that that 80 per cent of the scholarship money was paid to the private institutions, the CBI alleged that the scam was unearthed following reports that the students of the government schools in the tribal Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul and Spiti district had not been paid a scholarship for the five years.“A case was registered by the CBI in 2019 on request of the Himachal Pradesh government against the private educational institutions in the state for fake and fraudulent claims of scholarships of around Rs 181 crore during 2013 to 2017,” a senior agency official said.Searches were conducted at about 30 places which led to the recovery of incriminating documents and subsequently, 19 accused, including the chairman, vice-chairman, directors and employees of the educational institutes; bank officials and officials of the education department were arrested.Twenty two educational institutions were on the CBI radar for not only committing irregularities but also for allegedly asking the students to pay money for the release of scholarship.
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