CBI Files Case Over Alleged Minority Scholarship "Scam"

(News Agency) - A case has been filed in connection with the alleged minority scholarship scam, in which 830 "fake" institutions were benefitting, causing a loss of about ? 144 crore to the Ministry of Minority Affairs during 2017-22, officials said on Tuesday.
The FIR is filed against unidentified persons of banks, institutions and others under IPC sections of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.
"Considering various reports received on embezzlement of funds under the Scholarship Schemes, the Ministry has engaged National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) to carry out Third Party Evaluation of the Scholarship Schemes. Besides, the Ministry also carried out evaluation through National Scholarship Portal (NSP) by generating Red Flags on doubtful Institutions/ Applicants," the Ministry had said in its complaint which has now become part of the FIR.
It said a total of 1,572 institutes were identified for evaluation based on red flags generated on NSP. "Out of 1,572 institutions from 21 states, 830 institutions are found either non-operational or fake or partial fake," it said.
The ministry has estimated the loss to the exchequer by counting financial implications for the year 2017-18 to 2021-22 for the institutes that are identified as fake and found a loss of ? 144.33 crore to the exchequer, against these 830 institutes, it said.The ministry said it was able to detect the loss for the period during which digitized data on NSP was available and the scam could be going on much prior to 2017-18.