New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said that it has filed a prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against Izhar Hussain Jafri, Ali Abbas Jafri and Ravi Prakash Gupta in connection with a case of Rs 100 crore ‘scholarship scam’, an official said.
The accused were arrested by the ED on April 26 and are currently in judicial custody.
Earlier, the ED conducted searches in various educational institutes across several districts of Uttar Pradesh and seized crucial evidences of the offence. Thereafter, information was passed on to Uttar Pradesh Police by the ED under sSction 66 of the PMLA, for registering FIR against the accused persons.
The ED investigation revealed that these persons were operating the scam under Hygia Group of colleges and fraudulently obtained scholarship funds amounting Rs 100 crore using Aadhar and bank details of ineligible persons shown as students.
The ED probe revealed that the accused persons opened 3,000 such bank accounts in the names of students using documents of various persons and common email IDs.
Ravi Prakash Gupta, Izhar Hussain Jafri, Ali Abbas Jafri in conspiracy with agents of FINO payment bank namely Mohd. Sahil Aziz, Amit Kumar Maurya, Tanveer Ahmad and Jitendra Singh, among others diverted scholarship funds from students’ accounts to the bank accounts of Hygia group of colleges as well as other persons and institutes.
During investigation, it was also revealed that in commission of the offence, Izhar Hussain Jafri, Ali Abbas Jafri and Ravi Prakash Gupta not only controlled the bank accounts of beneficiary students and illegally kept their ATM cards, phone numbers, etc., for self-operation and subsequently withdraw the scholarship funds in cash from the bank accounts of the students at various locations.
The scholarship funds were also transferred to various accounts of accused persons and their relatives and Oregon Educational Society. Earlier during investigation, bank balances and immovable assets in form of land, all valuing to Rs.3.2 crore, were attached by the ED under provisions of PMLA.
Further investigation into the matter is ongoing.
(IANS)
