Assam police unearths massive scholarship scam in Barpeta, two arrested

In the name of the Ishan Uday Scholarship Scheme and the central government's ministry of minority development for meritorious students from minority communities, a huge fraud cycle has been unearthed in Assam's Barpeta district.

A vicious circle has fraudulently siphoned off crores of rupees in the name of ghost students of some colleges in the state.

Barpeta police have arrested two accused in connection with the scam in the name of the Ishan Uday Scholarship Scheme.

The two arrested accused are Zeherul Islam and Habibur Rahman and have been lodged in Jahorpam village in Barpeta.

Barpeta police conducted a search and arrested the two accused who had fraudulently withdrawn the student's scholarship money.

Barpeta Additional Superintendent of Police Pradeep Saikia told reporters at a press conference.

Speaking to the media, the Additional Superintendent of Police said, "On October 28, we received information and based on it enquiry was made and it was revealed that two persons have been associated with such forgery case."

"Upon interrogation, it was revealed that the duo has siphoned around Rs 78,000 in the year 2018 and in 2022 the duo has faked around 300 students under the minority development scheme in the name of siphoning scholarship money", the Additional Superintendent added.

Notably, the said money siphoned in the name of a scholarship in 2022 is currently under investigation and will be shared shortly.

It is to be noted that students who pass the Higher Secondary Examination with 75 per cent marks are given a scholarship of about Rs 60,000 per year. 

Similarly, the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Central Government offers meritorious students from minority communities of the state to study in some of the leading educational institutions outside the state.

This vicious circle has been using passwords and OTP of some colleges in the state as well as forging the signatures of college principals in the name of ghost students.

It may be recalled that since 2018, the two accused have fraudulently withdrawn crores of rupees of Ishan Uday Scholarship in the name of Barpeta-Bongaigaon College, popular college Baniyarapara, Koyakushi College, Harendra-Chitra College, Bhaktardoba and CK College in Abhayapuri.

On the other hand, the accused also siphoned the scholarship money, in the name of students, studying at Nathgiri College in Bangalore, Madani College in Karnataka, Institute of Nursery Science of Karnataka.

Notably, for the past several years there have been demands for stringent punishment in the state to wipe out the cycle that has taken root.