CBI registers case in minority scholarship scam after central govt investigation finds embezzlement worth 144.33 crores

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against unnamed officials, nodal officers, and PSU bank staffers for a scam in minority scholarships worth Rs 144 crores. The complaint has been registered by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registers case against unknown officials in connection with alleged minority scholarship scam of Rs 144 crores

— ANI (@ANI) August 29, 2023

As per the FIR filed by CBI, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has highlighted a case of alleged scam worth Rs 144.33 crores against unnamed officials with regards to the distribution of minority scholarships. The FIR has been filed under sections 120B, rw 420, 468, and 461 of the IPC and 13 (2), 13 (1)(c), and (d) of the PC Act 1988. The charges include criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, using forged documents as genuine, and criminal misconduct.

The suspected accused include unnamed officials of the government, officials of several PSU banks, and nodal officers of 830 different institutions located across 18 states.

The complaint states that for the last 5 years, between the years 2017-22, approximately 65 lakh students received minority scholarships every year from the central government under 3 different schemes namely: Pre-Matric Scholarships, Post Matric Scholarships, and Merit- cum-Means for the students of Six Minority Communities i.e. Muslims, Christian, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parasis.

These scholarships are all DBT schemes where students receive funds directly in their bank accounts. After reviving reports of fund embezzlement, the Ministry has engaged the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) to carry out Third Party Evaluation of the Scholarship Scheme. An evaluation was also carried out through the national scholarship portal to flag suspicious institutions and applications. Based on the evaluation a total of 830 institutions were found to be fake, partially fake, or non-operational.

The total loss to the exchequer has been estimated at Rs 144.33 crores. The ministry has stated in the FIR that there is a possibility that the forgery and thus, fake embezzlement of scholarships have been going on since before 2017. However, digitally verified data could be collected for scholarships distributed between 2017 and 2022.