Guwahati: Six persons arrested in connection with the major Rs 105 crore State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) scam were on Thursday hauled before the special judge’s court.
Congress leader Rajesh Joshi was among those who were brought before the court. 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 important to note that Rajesh Joshi is the son-in-law of suspended SCERT Director-in-Charge Sewali Devi Sarma, while Lakhinarayan Sonowal is the retired SCERT Deputy Director. SCERT employees make up the other three detainees.
All of the suspects in the case were taken into custody following a protracted interrogation that began yesterday morning by the CM’s vigilance unit. They were all thereafter sent for medical evaluations.
Sewali Devi Sharma, an IAS officer who has been placed on administrative leave, was the target of a search operation by the CM’s special vigilance cell, but she reportedly fled to avoid being apprehended.
Ajit Paul Singh, the second son-in-law and contractor by trade of suspended SCERT Director-in-Charge Sewali Devi Sarma, was also found to be missing from his home.
According to reports, the 105- crore SCERT scam involves spending cash in the name of giving 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 indicated that suspended SCERT Director-in-Charge Sewali Devi Sarma awarded majority of the contracts to her family members, including her in-laws. More surprisingly, according to the sources, many of these companies’ Goods and Services Tax (GST) numbers were fraudulent.
Devi is accused of moving money from the company’s bank accounts to the accounts of other employees before taking cash out of those accounts. Additionally, it has come to light that Sewali Devi Sarma broke rules and regulations by opening 347 centres for the D.El.Ed. course through Open Distance Learning (ODL), which is 288 centres more than what the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) had authorised. Allegedly bogus centres made up the majority of these.
The investigation which is still ongoing is anticipated to provide more information on the type of misappropriation and the degree to which other people were engaged.