Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 11: Crime Branch Kashmir has registered a case in merit-cum-means scholarship fraud of Rs 1.34 crore.
As per official spokesman, Crime Branch Kashmir has initiated an enquiry on the basis of a communication received from General Administration Department on the complaint from Ministry of Minority Affairs.
The spokesman said that the enquiry revealed that allegations made by complainant are substantiated as out of 474 beneficiaries 463 were fake and an amount of Rs 1,34,21,168 had been credited to fake beneficiary accounts of West Bengal with 317 fake beneficiary accounts in the State Bank of India, 69 fake beneficiary account in the Bank of Baroda, 69 fake beneficiary accounts in the United Bank of India, 5 in the Allahabad Bank, 2 of Bangiya Grameen Vikas Bank and one beneficiary account in Central Bank of India, as against 463 bank accounts of J&K mentioned in the application form of candidates who were shown to be residents of Qazigund district Kulgam.
During enquiry, it surfaced that the applications had been uploaded on the NSP through two electronic devices in the name of Shubankar Sarkar S and Salim Sheikh, residents of West Bengal who seemingly had the access to the username and password for uploading the applications and thereby furnished the institutional verification, the official spokesman informed.
“The verification furnished by District Nodal Officer Kulgam, the bank revalidation through CBS, by PMFS followed by digital signatures by Ministry Nodal Officer and UT Nodal Officer has been instrumental in processing and release of payment to the 463 fake beneficiaries”, he added.
The omission and commission on part of the concerned officers, Shubankar Sarkar of West Bengal and Salim Sheikh, son of Gayas-ud-Din of Bedrabad District Malda West Bengal and others acting in deceitful and fraudulent manner by way of impersonation have caused wrongful loss to the exchequer and wrongful gain to beneficiaries thereby have prima-facie committed offences punishable under sections 420, 468, 120-B IPC r/w 66 (D) IT Act and 5 (2) PC Act, the official spokesman stated.
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