Diplomat Correspondent
Srinagar,(DD): The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Jammu has registered a case against the former Director of the Tribal Affairs Department and several others in connection with a massive scholarship scam involving gross misuse of funds meant for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students.
The case—FIR No. 09/2025—has been filed under sections 5(1)(c), 5(1)(d) read with section 5(2) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, Svt. 2006, and section 120-B of the RPC. Those named in the FIR include M.S. Choudhary (former Director, Tribal Affairs), Shanaz Akhtar Malik of Catalog Computers, Humera Banu and Firdous Ahmed of Chirag Institute of IT, Sham Lal Targotra of JKS Industrial Training Institute, Jaffer Hussain Wani of Ever Green Institute of Computer Technology, Parshotam Bharadwaj of Global Institute of IT, Ramneek Kour of Pankaj Memorial Charitable Trust, Puneet Mahajan of Supertech (India) Computer Education, and others.
Initial investigations revealed that from 2014 to 2018, the Directorate of Tribal Affairs disbursed crores of rupees to private institutes for unrecognised courses and without proper verification of infrastructure or student attendance. The funds were meant to cover tuition and maintenance allowances under the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme launched by the Government of India to support ST students in completing post-secondary education.
Many private institutions submitted documents of students from remote areas to claim scholarships, even though these students never enrolled or attended courses. In several cases, fake bank accounts were allegedly created without the students’ knowledge to siphon off the maintenance allowance.
Some of the institutions reportedly lacked accreditation from competent bodies like NIELIT, yet received full payments. ACB stated that the fraudulent disbursements occurred due to the deliberate negligence and collusion between department officials and institute operators.
The accused are alleged to have manipulated records, bypassed mandatory verifications, and violated scheme guidelines, causing significant financial loss to the government exchequer. The investigation is ongoing.(DD)
