Man lived in south Delhi slum for 10 days to get son admitted to school under EWS quota
NEW DELHI: The Delhi businessman, arrested for allegedly impersonating as a slum dweller to secure his son’s admission in Sanskriti School under the economically weaker sections (EWS) quota, had lived in a slum for 10 days to use the address as residential proof. Police said Gaurav Goyal and his family lived in a slum at the Sanjay Camp in Chanakyapuri for around 10 days in 2013. The address was also verified on paper by a sub-divisional magistrate.
Goyal, city businessman was arrested on Thursday from his north Delhi’s Jawahar Nagar home, after the school administration filed an FIR, accusing him of attempting to get his elder son admitted to the school using forged documents. The school authorities, in their complaint, also accused Goyal and his wife of allegedly submitting forged documents to secure his elder son’s admission in 2013.
Under the EWS category, 25% of seats are reserved for students from underprivileged backthe
ground whose family income is less than ₹1 lakh per annum. Goyal, police said, runs a pulse trading business and has travelled abroad at least 24 times in the past eight years.
On Sunday, HT visited the house at Sanjay Camp. The rundown one storey house next to a drain, which Goyal had claimed
to be his house in his son’s school documents, is owned by an elderly couple. The couple denied Goyal’s claim and said that they have been living there since 1982. Sarifan Islam, 65, said she has never rented out her house to anybody or allowed any outsider to stay in 2013. The woman denied knowing Goyal.
Sarifan’s neighbours supported her, saying they had never seen any family living in her jhuggi . An investigating officer said that during interrogation, Goyal revealed that had his staff, Anil, who lives in the same slum, had allegedly helped him get the jhuggi on a monthly rent of ₹1,500. On Friday, police took Goyal to slum where he identified Anil’s house and also the elderly couple’s room. HT met Anil on Sunday but he denied his involvement while admitting that his father Hira Lal knows Goyal.
Deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi), Madhur Verma said, “Goyal used a forged residential address for his elder son’s admission and the same has been verified by the local sub-divisional magistrate. We are investigating the case.”
Police said Goyal’s fraud was detected by the school authorities when he applied for his second son’s admission under general category and requested change of status of his first son, a Class 3 student, from EWS to general. The documents submitted by the parents claimed they were now residents of south Delhi’s Safdarjung Enclave.
School authorities sent Goyal and his wife’s voter ID cards to Delhi’s electoral officer, who confirmed that the card holders were registered voters in the Safdarjung Enclave since February 13, 2018, and not February 13, 2016, as mentioned in the documents submitted to the school.