Lucknow: A special PMLA court on Saturday issued a Non-Bailable Warrant against the chairman of a private educational institution in connection with a scholarship scam alleged to be worth Rs 500 crore.
ED sources said that first summon was issued against Praveen on April 5, 2023 and the seventh on October 17, 2023 but he did not turn up following which they were forced to move to the court.
Two plots worth Rs 76.55 lakh in the name of Praveen and a plot worth Rs 24 lakh in the name of his wife were attached by ED in September 2023 as proceeds of crime.
The sources privy to the probe said that managers and trustees of the private institute belonging to Praveen got admission of “fake” students in their institutes for namesake and applied for scholarships in their names on the government portal.
The scholarship received was transferred to accounts of colleges and thereafter withdrawn in cash or transferred to personal accounts, thus, resulting in embezzlement of government funds running in crores, it alleged.
The scholarship is provided by central and state governments to facilitate the education of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), PH (physically handicapped or specially-abled) candidates, students from minority communities and those belonging to economically weaker sections of the society in UP.
ED had raided 10 educational institutions in February to investigate the scholarship scam and during the raids conducted in the educational institutions of the Hygia group, the ED has found evidence of ineligible students being shown on the admission papers and grabbing scholarships. Ineligible people from seven years to 45 years were made students of their educational institutions by the operators of Hygia.
In the scam so far ED has arrested five identified as Izhar Hussain Jafri, Ali Abbas Jafri, Ravi Prakash Gupta, Vikram Nag and Ram Gopal while attached properties of the accused worth around Rs 5 crore.
