Uttarakhand SC/ST Scholarship Fraud: ED Seizes ₹ 2 Crore Assets In Scam

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has seized a building and land worth about Rs 2 crore of an educational trust as part of a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged SC/ST scholarship scam in Uttarakhand.

The action has been taken against the Deen Dayal Sharma Educational Trust, which runs the Institute of Professional Studies in Roorkee, the agency said in a statement.

ED alleged Institute fraudulently received scholarship amounts

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged that the institute “fraudulently” received scholarship amounts in the name of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) students from the social welfare department, Haridwar, for the period between 2013-14 and 2016-17.

The institute made “false claims” to obtain the funds under the SC/ST scholarship scheme and the amount, in the form of personal expenses of students and college tuition fees, were credited to the account of the college, it said.

Huge financial loss to the public exchequer

"The said amount was siphoned off by Vivek Sharma and Ankur Sharma, trustees of the Deen Dayal Sharma Educational Trust, and this caused huge financial loss to the public exchequer," the ED alleged.

These funds were further “diverted” to either the bank accounts of the educational trust or to other accounts of the college and were utilised for the expenses of the trustees after being withdrawn in cash, the agency said.

Land and a building of the trust in state capital Dehradun and Haridwar worth Rs 1.97 crore have been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED case stems from an FIR of the Haridwar police, it said.