A total of 11 accused in the massive Rs 105 crore State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) scam in Assam have been granted bail, sources said on Tuesday.
The people whose bail plea have been granted are Anup Saikia, Bidyut Kalita, Manoj Das, Poojamoni Das, Rabijit Gogoi, Bening Doloi, Rajib Kakoty, Rubul Ali, Ramijjudin Ahmed, Rahul Amin and Bejeta Sarma, sources said.
The bail plea to the 11 accused was granted by the special judge’s court today. According to information, the accused persons were granted bail in exchange for Rs 50,000 each and two sureties.
On the other hand, reports also said that two other accused of the scam were granted interim bail today. They have been identified as Lakshminarayan Sonowal and Rajesh Kumar.
Earlier this month, as many as six accused in the massive scam were granted bail. Those who were granted bail were Bhaskar Jyoti Hazarika, Keshab Gogoi, Sonmoni Nath, Joy Chandra Lakhar, David Adhikari and Chareng Mor.
In July this year, the Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell submitted the complete chargesheet for the scam. The complete chargesheet of a total of 1,433 pages was filed after 87 days by the CM Vigilance Cell at a special court. As per the chargesheet as many as 21 people have been named as accused.
The Rs 105- crore SCERT scam in Assam 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.
