Scholarship scam: Crime Branch nabs former director, dy director of CCRT

New Delhi: The Inter-border Gangs Investigation Squad (IGIS) of Crime Branch on Sunday said it has arrested two retired senior officials of the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) for their involvement in the 'scholarship scam', in which 11 persons including an ex-employee of CCRT had already been arrested.

Cops identified the two accused, both 60, as GC Joshi and Anil Kohli. Joshi served as Director of CCRT from 2011 to 2018 and retired in July, while Kohli served as Deputy Director (Finance) from 2011 to 2018 and retired in April, cops added.

All the accused men in the scam had peculated over Rs 50 lakh of government money between 2015 and 2017, in the name of providing scholarships through CCRT to young children across India.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ajit Kumar Singla on Sunday said that in February, a case of cheating was registered at Dwarka South police station, based on a complaint by Joshi, regarding major frauds committed at CCRT.

Singla added that in March, investigation of the case was transferred to the Crime Branch after a PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court stating that staff of CCRT may be involved in the scam.

Under overall guidance of DCP Bhisham Singh, a team led by Inspector Richhpal Singh – supervised closely by ACP Aditya Gautam – was constituted to investigate the scam.

"During investigation, a total of 11 accused, including ex-employee of CCRT Sandip, were arrested by Crime Branch in August. The role of the Director and Deputy Director was also probed and they were also found involved in the scam," said Singla.

Cops claimed that in August 2011, Joshi had appointed Sandip as an IT programmer on a contractual basis and attached him with the Accounts Section, which was under the supervision of Kohli.

In the Accounts Section, Sandip became acquainted with the loopholes and procedure of payments to the scholarship holders and planned to embezzle the funds.

He roped some of his friends, other staff, as well as Kohli and Joshi in his plan and offered them certain percentages as commission.

However, in November 2016, a dispute arose between Joshi and Kohli and Sandip over the commission, as there was lack of currency in banks during the time when demonetisation was announced. Finally, in March this year, Joshi terminated the services of Sandip before the completion of his contract period.