More arrests likely in Uttarakhand scholarship scam

Dehradun, May 21 (IANS) After the arrest of 12 people in the Rs 100 crore SC/ST scholarships scam that rattled the Haridwar district, the Uttarakhand Police on Tuesday said some more arrests were likely on the completion of investigations.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg. We will soon start investigations in the Dehradun district too. More arrests are likely as it's a big scam," said a top police official.

State Deputy Director of the Social Welfare Department Anurag Shakhdhar, who was recently arrested in the scam, has been suspended.

The scam came to light in 2016 when then State Vigilance Department Director Ashok Kumar ordered arrest of some top officials of Mewar University in Rajasthan on the charges of siphoning off scholarships in the names of Uttarakhand students through fake identities, police sources said.

In 2017, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat ordered a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the scholarship scam.

Social activists has claimed involvement of dozens of educational institutes in Haridwar in the scam.

The alleged involvement of scores of educational institutes in Uttarakhand and other states in the siphoning of SC/ST students' scholarships by using fake identities have come to light.

A majority of the educational institutes under cloud are in the Haridwar and Dehradun districts. The IMS Institute of Technology, Roorkee, alone siphoned off Rs 4.13 crore, the police said. Four top officials of this institute have been arrested.

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