The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of crime branch police on Thursday arrested a retired Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) officer on the charge of perpetrating large scale irregularities in scholarship schemes in the higher education department about seven years back.

There was large scale bungling of government funds as ineligible and undeserving students were awarded e-Medhabruti (Scholarship) in flagrant violation of rules. The irregularities on part of the arrested officer had resulted in financial loss to the government.

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The retired State cadre civil servant Prakash Chandra Rath was arrested from his residence at Balianta on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. He was booked as there was prima facie of fiscal bungling against him in the implementation of the scholarship scheme.

Rath had committed the acts of omission and commission when he was officiating in the higher education department’s scholarship section, said EOW officials.

The EOW had instituted a probe after the higher education department had reported financial mismanagement and irregularities in payment of e-Medhabruti (Scholarship) in 2014-15. After prima facie was established, a case was registered against the corrupt officer under Sections 409, 406 and 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 2017.

“During his tenure as the Under Secretary (Higher Education Department), Rath in connivance with others had sanctioned scholarships to the tune of Rs 36.10 lakh in favour of as many as 235 non-bonafide/non-eligible students “without getting any validation from the institutes/colleges concerned and also without placing the same before the Financial Advisor for sanction”, said EOW officials.

As per the rule, students are required to apply for scholarships online on a dedicated government portal. The scholarship is granted only after detailed verification of the applications by institutes and colleges concerned, who then forwarded these to the state government.

“After receiving the applications of genuine students, the Under Secretary (Higher Education Department) needs to place these before the Financial Advisor for sanction of the scholarships. After the necessary sanction, the scholarship amount is then disbursed to the students. However, all such norms were violated by the accused,” EOW officials said, adding that the accused was later remanded to judicial custody.