Former Uttar Pradesh Director of Social Welfare Department Mishrilal Paswan has been arrested in connection with the scholarship scam of Rs 7.95 crore.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has taken this action in the case of sanctioning scholarship to Roorkee’s Guru Nanak Education Trust against the rules. This is the first arrest by EOW in this scam that took place between 2010 and 2012. Paswan was arrested from Mahanagar on Tuesday, an EOW official confirmed here on Wednesday.
PCS officer Mishrilal retired in 2014. Between 2010 and 2012, Director Mishrilal and other personnel posted in the Directorate of Social Welfare had committed a scholarship scam in connivance with the then trustee of Guru Nanak Education Trust .
A total 336 students pursuing PGDM were given scholarships in excess of the prescribed amount. The trust took scholarships by showing fake admissions of many students. In this regard, a case was registered against 6 accused in SIT Police Station, Lucknow in 2019. It was alleged that scholarship money was swindled through fake documents.
On the instructions of the government, the SIT had registered a case in the scholarship scam, in which the then Social Welfare Director Mishrilal Paswan along with the then Desk Assistant Education Section Dharmendra Singh, Superintendent Education Section DK Gupta and Anil Upadhyay (now deceased), Planning Officer Dr. Manjushree Srivastava and Trustee of Gurunanak Education Trust Guru Simran Singh Chaddha were named.
The investigation revealed that the amount of Scheduled Caste Post Matric Scholarship/Fee Reimbursement for the Scheduled Caste students studying in the Trust, who are natives of UP, was taken from the Social Welfare Directorate in the year 2010-11 and year 2011-12.
In the letter of the Secretary of the Governor/Chancellor of Uttarakhand, in which the approval of temporary affiliation for the academic year 2010-11 and 2012-13 and 180 seats of PGDM course were mentioned, the name of the institution was mentioned as Harmish College of Engineering and Management.
According to DG EOW Neera Rawat, it is alleged that in connivance with the officials, there was a fraud in the scholarship of 336 students of PGDM course under the Scheduled Caste Post Matric Scholarship and Fee Reimbursement Scheme. Inspector AK Shukla, who investigated the matter, said that a scholarship of Rs 91,600 was to be provided per student.
Whereas a scholarship of Rs 2.30 lakh per student was issued. Gurunanak Education Trust and officials together committed a fraud of about eight crore rupees by providing more money in the form of scholarship.
Many forms were incomplete but their verification was not done and the scholarship amount was released. The money was grabbed by showing fake admission of many students. He said that after getting prosecution approval against the accused Mishrilal Paswan, he was arrested from Mahanagar area in Lucknow.
The then trustee is being searched. In the case, prosecution approval has been sought against the then Planning Officer, Desk Assistant and Superintendent Education Section of Social Welfare, he added.