A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Uttarakhand Police was finally successful in arresting an accused in the multi-crore state scholarship scam from Ghaziabad. The accused Ashwani Tandon was absconding for the past one year.

Ashwani Tandon was allegedly running two fake institutes in Haridwar, by claiming affiliation with recognised universities, and allegedly grabbed over Rs 66 lakh from the Uttarakhand government’s social welfare department by showing bogus admission of SC/ST students.

The Uttarakhand SIT is probing the over Rs 500 crore scholarship scam of the social welfare department, which allegedly involved a number of private colleges and institutes of the state. They allegedly furnished fake documents and bank account numbers of students to grab scholarships of the department. The students, who were shown beneficiaries of the scholarship, were never enrolled in the college concerned. Their documents were used for grabbing the scholarship. A number of accused have been arrested in connection with this mega scam over the past few years.

Tandon used a simple method and shared money with departmental staff. He provided 12 percent of the amount (read commission), received as scholarship, to a social welfare department staff. Tandon confessed to providing money to social welfare officer Mukesh Tyagi.

The Special Investigation Team registered a police case against Ashwani Tondon last year on 21 October. As the cops went searching for the accused at the address provided on his bank account they found that he used to live there in rent. The accused was absconding since 2019 and was arrested from Ghaziabad on Saturday.

Ashwani Tandon was operating Hemlata Institute at Bhadrabad and N Power Academy at Vivek Vihar, both in Haridwar. Despite not having proper infrastructure and affiliation papers, the accused managed to make big money by bribing the department staff.

The investigation into alleged misuse of scholarship is bringing many shocking facts to light. Many colleges and institutes, operated by influential people, were involved in misusing the grant. Over 200 colleges have been found guilty of misusing the scholarship and transferring the amount in their own accounts. The number is likely to grow as the probe will progress further.