ED attaches properties worth in UP scholarship scam

New Delhi, Dec 4 (IANS) Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said that it has attached properties worth Rs 4.12 crore in a scholarship scam in Uttar Pradesh.

The financial probe agency, in a statement, said that the agency attached the properties to the tune of Rs 4.12 crore under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The attached properties are in the form of two residential plots in Lucknow in the name of Ram Gopal, one hectare land along with buildings of Jivika Institute of Pharmacy and Jivika College of Pharmacy constructed on it and three luxury vehicles in the name of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Foundation under which Jivika Institute of Pharmacy and Jivika College of Pharmacy are functioning.

This is third attachment in the case.

The ED case is based on intelligence and FIR registered by UP police in scholarship scam.

The agency said that its probe found that managers and trustees of various institutes got fake students admitted to their institutes for namesake and applied for scholarship in their names on the government portal with the sole purpose of wrongful advantage of government schemes which were meant for needy students.

“All the formalities in this regard were done by the institutes themselves through various agents. The scholarship so received was transferred to accounts of colleges and thereafter withdrawn in cash or ultimately transferred to personal accounts of owners or managers or trustees or family members, thus, their actions resulted in embezzlement of more than Rs 100 crore of government money,” the ED said.

The ED said that earlier, Ram Gopal, Manager and a key person of Jivika Institute of Pharmacy and Jivika College of Pharmacy was arrested by ED on October 6 this year and after 13 days of ED custody he is in judicial custody now.

The ED has till date arrested five people in the case and besides it two attachment orders attaching immovable and movable properties worth Rs 6.09 crore in the name of managers and trustees of the various colleges have already been issued.

One chargesheet and one Supplementary chargesheet in the case have already been filed against four accused persons before the court.

Total accumulated attachments along with this stand at Rs 10.21 crore, the ED said.