Tuesday, 19 March 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached one immovable property worth about Rs one crore in Haridwar under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the SC-ST scholarship scam case. The officials informed that the immovable property included land and a building situated in Haridwar that belong to the Vardhman Educational Society which runs the Institute of Management Studies, Roorkee and IMS Institute of Technology, Roorkee against the proceeds of crime of about Rs one crore. They informed that the ED initiated the investigation last year under various sections of the Indian Penal Code against the members of the Vardhman Educational Society.
The investigation revealed that the Institute of Management Studies and IMS Institute of Technology, Roorkee had fraudulently received a huge amount of scholarship in the name of SC- ST students from the Social Welfare department in Haridwar for the period 2013-14 to 2016-17. It was also revealed that the institution had made false claims to obtain a scholarship under the SC-ST scholarship scheme. The investigation revealed that the amounts of scholarship in the form of personal expenses of students and tuition fees of college were allegedly credited into the account of the college. The said amount was allegedly siphoned off by the chairman and other members of the Vardhman Educational Society and caused a huge financial loss to the public exchequer.
The ED investigation further revealed that this ill-gotten money was further diverted to either the bank accounts of Vardhman Educational Society or to other accounts of the college and was utilised for the expenses of the trustees and was withdrawn in cash, the officials said. The ED had also attached immovable properties worth Rs 1.97 crore in the same case last year in the form of land and building in Dehradun and Haridwar that belonged to Deen Dayal Sharma Educational Trust which runs the Institute of Professional Studies, Roorkee. The investigation is ongoing, they added.
