New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at 22 locations across six districts of Uttar Pradesh in connection with the alleged embezzlement of scholarship amount of Rs.75 Cr meant for economically weaker, minority and differently-abled students of various educational institutions.
The alleged fraudulent money laundering case stems from a 2017 complaint by the State Vigilance Bureau.
In a statement issued on Friday, the ED identified the institutes under its scanner as S.S. Institute of Management; Hygia College of Pharmacy; Hygia Institute of Pharmacy/Central Institute of Pharmacy; and Lucknow Institute of Management and Education; Dr. Om Prakash Gupta Institute of Management and Technology, Farrukhabad; and Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar Foundation and Jivika College of Pharmacy, R. P. Inter College; Gyanwati Inter College; and Uchatar Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Hardoi.
The ED said, “Hygia group of colleges are controlled and managed by I.H. Jafri; O.P. Gupta Institute by Shivam Gupta; SS Institute by Praveen Kumar Chauhan; and Jivika College by Ram Gupta...,”
The ED alleged that these institutes "illegally" availed scholarships in the name of several ineligible candidates and "embezzled" the funds.
The scholarships are provided by the Central and State governments to facilitate the education of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), physically challenged (Divyang) candidates and students belonging to minority communities and economically weaker sections.
Explaining the modus operandi, the ED said the "scam" was perpetrated with the active assistance of several agents of Fino Payments Bank, including Mohd Sahil Aziz, Amit Kumar Maurya, Tanveer Ahmed, Jitendra Singh and Ravi Prakash Gupta. The agency said this was done by misusing relaxation in the process for opening accounts on the platform of Fino Payment Bank.
All the bank accounts were opened by the accused in Lucknow and Mumbai branches of Fino, the ED alleged.
The institutes availed the services of Fino Agent for both electronic transfer of scholarship money and cash withdrawal.
The institutions, in order to avail higher scholarship amount, also used the bank accounts of minor children and persons of 45 years and above. They had opened around 3,000 such accounts. Most of the accounts were in the name of villagers without their knowledge.
The ED claimed that in some cases, the institute and its employees managed to illegally obtain and use IDs and passwords issued to Fino Bank agents and operate micro-ATMs issued by the bank in the institute's premises.
"The scholarship amount was withdrawn in cash from the accounts of the students by the institutions," it said.
The agency seized Rs 36.51 lakh and USD 956 in cash, besides a large number of SIM cards, stamps and seals of various organizations during the raids. It said the institute was prima facie involved in "forgery and fabrication" of various documents.(with Agency inputs)
