‘Taruner Swapna’: More plaints & arrests come to the fore with tablet scam probe
Siliguri/ Raiganj/ Malda: As investigations revolving around the “Tab scam” under the state government’s “Taruner Swapna” scheme case have started proceeding, more complaints and arrests have started coming to the fore.
Approximately 28 students from two government schools, one in NJP and the other in Siliguri appear to have had their allocated tab funds diverted into different accounts. Both the school authorities lodged a written complaint at Cyber Police Station. The schools are Krishna Maya Memorial Nepali High School in Hakimpara, Siliguri and NJP Railway Colony High School. Of the 28 students, 21 belong to NJP Railway Colony High School while the remaining seven are from Krishna Maya Memorial Nepali High School. The irregularities came to light after school officials noticed the bank account transaction of students. Rakesh Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (East) of Siliguri Police Commissionerate, said on Tuesday: “We have received complaints from both the school authorities. In the primary investigation, we have identified a private bank on SF Road as a potential link in the case. Investigation is on.”
Prasamma Pradhan, Principal of Krishna Maya Memorial Nepali High School, said: “As soon as we discovered the issue, we filed a complaint on behalf of the school authorities to get the matter addressed.” Biman Tapadar, a teacher at NJP Railway Colony High School, added: “We have observed unusual activity, in that the money was transferred to other accounts without authorisation. We immediately reported this to the police.” On November 14 and 18, the headmasters of different government schools will hold meetings with the District Inspector (DI) of schools to discuss the issue in Siliguri. In a significant breakthrough, police arrested three youths from the Gheenigaon Gram Panchayat area under the Chopra Police Station in North Dinajpur district late on Monday night, in connection with the alleged scam. The accused, identified as Saddiq Hossain and Mobarak Hossain from Daspara in Chopra, along with Asarul Hoque from Ramganj in Islampur, have been named in an FIR filed at Tamluk Police Station.
A police official from Islampur Police District stated that following their arrest, the suspects were presented at the Islampur Sub-divisional Court, where the authorities sought transit remand to facilitate further investigation.
In another development a youth from the Krishnapur village of Baishnabnagar in Malda was arrested late Monday night by the Purba Bardhaman police, in collaboration with the local police, on charges of being involved in misappropriation of tablet funds. The accused, identified as Hasan Ali 24, operates a cyber cafe located about a kilometre from his home at MLA More. According to police, Hasan had been creating multiple fake identities online and is suspected to be involved in the scam, which has been the
subject of ongoing investigations state-wide. It is alleged that he broke into the portal designated for uploading names of beneficiaries of the ‘Tarunder Swapna’ scheme.
