New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said properties worth Rs 57 crore have been attached under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the Uttar Pradesh college graduation scholarship scam.

The ED said the attached property is the college building of the SS Management College in Bakshi Katarab area of ​​Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.

This is the fourth attachment in the case, according to the federal agency. The total accumulated attachments as well as the new attachments are said to be worth Rs 15.7 crore.

SS Group of Institutions owns and operates schools and colleges under the name SS in the city of Lucknow. These colleges are offering various management courses (BBA and MBA).

The education ministry said SS Group Chairman Praveen Chauhan, with the help of Ishrat Zafari of Hagia Institutions Group and his staff, forged documents of hundreds of students and obtained scholarships of Rs 740 crore from the school in their names. government. “Of this, movable and immovable properties worth Rs 17 crore have been seized.”

The ED launched an investigation into the scholarship scam case against the accused on the basis of FIRs and First Information Reports registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

Investigations by the Ministry of Education revealed that administrators and trustees of various universities allowed fake students to enter their colleges under the same names and apply for scholarships in their names on government portals.

“All formalities and paperwork in this regard are handled by the college management themselves. Scholarships received by fake PH category and disabled students are transferred to the college account and then withdrawn in cash or transferred to personal accounts or used for purchase of land, construction houses, etc., thus, their actions deprived poor and genuine students of their rights, resulting in the misappropriation of over Rs 100 crore of government scholarship funds,” the education ministry said.

Earlier, the ED said that six accused in the case have been arrested and are in judicial custody. Accordingly, three interim attachment orders have been issued seizing various immovable and movable properties worth Rs 10 crore in the name of the officers and trustees of various colleges.

A prosecution complaint and two supplementary prosecution complaints in the case were filed before the Special Tribunal (PMLA) against the five accused and the court accepted them.

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