EOW nabs retired under secretary in scholarship scam in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) on Thursday arrested retired under secretary of Higher Education department, Prakash Rath in a case of embezzlement related to e-medhabruri scheme in Odisha.

He is accused of bembezzling e-scholarship fund in 2014-15.

It was alleged that scholarship was given to non-students instead of meritorious ones while he was in-charge of scholarship section.

It has been ascertained during the investigation that during the year 2014-15, as per the existing norms for sanction of scholarship from Higher Education department, the students needed to apply for scholarship in the on-line Govt. Portal.

Thereafter the concerned institutes/ colleges, to which the student belongs to, are supposed to verify the authenticity of applications and in genuine cases, used to validate the same and forward to the government. After receipt of applications of genuine students in the government, it was the responsibility of the Under Secretary, Higher Education Department to place the same before the Financial Advisor for sanction of the scholarships and after sanction, the scholarship amount used to be disbursed to the students.

It has been ascertained that during the relevant period, the present accused, Prakash Chandra Rath in criminal conspiracy with others had sanctioned scholarships to the tune of about Rs.36.10 lakhs in favour of as many as 235 numbers of ineligible students, violating the existing rules/ norms.