CBI arrests Education dept official

New Delhi: The CBI on Friday arrested three people, including an official of the Department of Higher Education, a Vice-Chairman of a private education institute and an official of Central Bank of India in connection with the Rs 250 crore Himachal Pradesh scholarship scam, where private educational institutes had illegally obtained scholarship funds from the Government of Himachal Pradesh, officials here said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had in May last year taken over the probe in the case and registered an FIR on the basis of consent accorded to it by the state government of the time to look into irregularities in the disbursement of scholarship funds.

Officials here said that Arvind Rajta, Superintendent Grade-II in the Department of Higher Education of Himachal Pradesh; Hitesh Gandhi, Vice-Chairman of the KC Group of Institutions and SP Singh, a head cashier of Central Bank of India have been arrested in the case and will be produced in court for custody proceedings.

The central agency had conducted searches at the premises of 21 private institutions like the KC Group in places like Karnal, Haryana; Mohali and Gurdaspur in Punjab; and Shimla, Bilaspur and Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, when it had registered the case last year.

According to the agency, the scholarship fund, sponsored by the Centre and State for SC/ST/OBC and Minority Community students for pre and post-matriculation education was not reaching the students. When the state police were investigating the case, local reports had highlighted the possibility of Education Department officials in the state being involved in the fraud.