GUWAHATI, Nov 9 - In a major breakthrough, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Assam Police has unearthed a multi-crore-rupee scam that took place in the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme for minorities and apprehended 21 persons in the past 24 hours from different locations of Goalpara, Darrang, Kamrup and Dhubri districts.
Those apprehended by CID included four headmasters of school, one assistant teacher, three owners of common service point (CSP) through which rural people used to open their bank account, a president of a school management committee, two electronic data processors employees working in the office of inspector of schools and ten middlemen.
From Goalpara, CID apprehended Fulbor Rahman, Sulaman Hussain, Kabir Hussain, Hafiza Khatoon, Seikh Nazrul Islam, Shajida Khatoon and Abida Khatun. From Darrang, CID apprehended Haidar Ali Ahmed, Burhan Ali, Manohar Badsha, Shamahmud Imran Ali, Jakir Hussain, Sumsuddin Ahmed and Md Achimuddin.
From Kamrup district, six persons � Mur Mohommad Ali, Mur Alom, Sirajul Haque, Hanifuddin Ahmed, Mahmud Mahbubur Rahman and Shohidul Islam � were apprehended by the sleuths of CID. From Dhubri, the CID apprehended one Burhanuddin Ahmed.
During the search operation, CID seized three laptops, 217 photographs of different students, 104 certificates of bona fide students, 173 pre-matric scholarship application forms and 11 bank passbooks from the residence of Hafija Khatun at Buduchar village of Goalpara district.
According to the Inspector General of Police (CID) Surendra Kumar, the scam was unearthed following a complaint filed by the Director of Assam Minority Development Board and the State nodal officer of the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme for minorities in Assam, Mahmood Hassan. As alleged by the complainant, in the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, miscreants have misappropriated around Rs 10 crore of public money meant for the scheme.
�As per rule, the headmaster concerned has to approve the application of a student to avail the scholarship through online process. The miscreants used two types of modus operandi... they took advantage of the computer-illiterate head teacher of a school, while head masters of the schools were also involved in the scam. In both cases, they used to open fake bank accounts in the name of students to siphon off the scholarship amount,� Surendra Kumar said.
The Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme is under the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. In the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, the Centre had disbursed Rs 109.33 crore, Rs 16.88 crore and Rs 161.14 crore respectively to Assam under the scheme.
