EOW nabs retired under secretary in alleged mismanagement of e-scholarship fund
Bhubaneswar : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch today arrested Prakash Chandra Rath, a retired OAS officer who was in-charge of Higher Education Department’s Scholarship Section, from his residence at Balianta in connection with a scholarship scam.
The case was registered after an enquiry taken up by the EOW in pursuant to a letter received from Department of Higher Education, Government of Odisha in the matter of financial mismanagement and irregularities in payment of e-Medhabruti (Scholarship) in the year 2014-15 in respect of large number of non-bonafide/ ineligible students, leading to huge loss to the Government exchequer.
A case was earlier registered against him in 2017 under Sections 409, 406 and 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after massive irregularities were detected in the payment of E-Medhabruti (Scholarship) for the year 2014-15.
” The above referred EOW Case no. 20 of 2017 has been registered consequent upon an enquiry taken up by EOW, Bhubaneswar in pursuant to a letter received from Department of Higher Education, Government of Odisha in the matter of financial mismanagement and irregularities in payment of E-Medhabruti (Scholarship) in the year 2014-15 in respect of large number of non-bonafied/ ineligible students, leading to huge loss in multi-lacs to the Government exchequer,” the press release by the EOW read.
The EOW said that during the investigation it was ascertained that during the year 2014-15, as per the existing norms for sanction of scholarship from Dept of Higher Education in the Government of Odisha, 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 & forward to Government.
“After receipt of applications of genuine students in the Govt, it was the responsibility of the Under Secretary of Government, 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, ” mentioned the EOW in the release.
” It has been ascertained that during the relevant period, the present accused, Prakash Chandra Rath was working as the Under Secretary to Govt, Higher Education Department and he 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 non-bonafide/ non-eligible students, violating the existing rules/ norms i.e. without getting any validation from the concerned institutes/ colleges and also without placing the same before the Financial Advisor for sanction of the same,” EOW release stated.
