Six people arrested in connection with the massive Rs 105 crore State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) scam were on Thursday produced before the special judge’s court.
Those who were produced before the court included Congress leader Rajesh Joshi. The others were Lakhinarayan Sonowal, Jayanta Lahkar, Ramizuddin Ahmed, Saranga More and Rubul Ali.
It may be noted that earlier on Wednesday, the Chief Minister's Special Vigilance Cell had arrested them in connection with the Rs 105-crore SCERT scam in Assam.
It is pertinent to mention that Lakhinarayan Sonowal is the retired SCERT Deputy Director, while, Rajesh Joshi is the son-in-law of suspended SCERT Director-in-Charge Sewali Devi Sarma. The other three arrestees are SCERT officials.
After a prolonged interrogation by the CM’s vigilance cell since the morning hours yesterday, arrested all of the persons involved in the case were arrested. Later, all of them were forwarded for a medical examination.
Meanwhile, CM’s special vigilance cell launched a search operation at the residence of suspended IAS officer Sewali Devi Sharma; however, she reportedly escaped to avoid her arrest.
On the other hand, suspended SCERT Director-in-Charge Sewali Devi Sarma’s second son-in law Ajit Paul Singh, a contractor by profession was also found to be absconding from his residence.
According to reports, the 105- crore SCERT scam involves spending funds in the name of offering a Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.) course under the Open Distance Learning (ODL) system. The alleged financial irregularities took place from 2017 to 2022.
The sources revealed that suspended SCERT Director-in-Charge Sewali Devi Sarma gave most of the contracts to her family members, including her in-laws. What is more surprising, according to the sources, is that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) numbers of many of these firms were fake.
Devi allegedly transferred funds from the official bank accounts to the accounts of other employees and then withdrew the money from those accounts. It has also come to light that Sewali Devi Sarma had flouted guidelines and rules and started 347 centres for the D.El.Ed. course under Open Distance Learning (ODL)—288 more than the number of centres for which the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) had given permission. Most of these centres were allegedly fake ones.
The enquiry which is still underway is likely to offer further insight into the nature of the misappropriation and the extent to which other persons were involved.
