Delhi police unearth scholarship scam

The Delhi Police on Friday said they had unearthed a scholarship scam of more than ₹50 lakh in Delhi’s Dwarkabased Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), an autonomous organisation under the aegis of the union culture ministry.

Six men, including a serving and a former employee of CCRT, were arrested between August 19 and 23 for allegedly embezzling the scholarship money of around 450 children across the country.

The children were awarded scholarships between October 2015 and September 2017 and the money was supposed to be transferred online.

The police said the men transferred the money into their own bank accounts after altering details of scholarship holders such as names, bank details, scholarship amount, identity proofs and names of their parents or guardians.

The arrested men are Sandip Kumar, a former employee of CCRT and the alleged mastermind of the racket, Koushik Sinha Roy, who is working as assistant puppeteer in CCRT since 2010, Vishnu Prasad Tiwari, Jay Prakash Pal, Prosanta Mondal, and Chandra Prakash Mishra.

Additional commissioner of police (crime) Rajeev Ranjan said CCRT’s director GC Joshi had filed a complaint in February after receiving many complaints from children and their parents regarding non-receipt of the money.

Enquiry revealed that a fraud to the tune of ₹37.25 lakh was committed by Sandip Kumar, who was employed as a programmer seven years ago. Kumar was sacked after his role in the racket was established.

“Kumar had transferred more than ₹50 lakh in the accounts of 16 people known to him. He went underground but we caught him on August 19. His interrogation led to the arrest of five more men who helped him,” said Bhisham Singh, DCP (crime).

ARRESTED BETWEEN AUGUST 19 AND 23 FOR EMBEZZLING SCHOLARSHIP MONEY OF CHILDREN ACROSS THE COUNTRY.