Lucknow scholarship scam: ED arrests 3 owners of education institutes in multi-crore fraud

The three accused diverted scholarship funds from students' accounts to the bank accounts of the Hygia Group of colleges and other people and institutes

PGurus Newsdesk

April 27, 2023

The three accused diverted scholarship funds from students' accounts to the bank accounts of the Hygia Group of colleges and other people and institutes

Scholarship scam: Arrests 3, including Hygia group promoter, on money laundering charges

In connection with the multi-crore scholarship fraud in Lucknow, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested three people — Izhar Hussain Jafri, Ali Abbas Jafri, and Ravi Prakash Gupta. A competent court in Lucknow granted five-day ED custody of all the arrested persons.

A statement from ED said the investigation revealed that these people were operating the scam under Hygia Group of Colleges in Lucknow and fraudulently obtained scholarship funds using Aadhaar and bank details of ineligible persons shown as students.

The three accused, in a conspiracy with agents of a payments bank, allegedly diverted scholarship funds from students’ accounts to the bank accounts of the Hygia Group of colleges and other people and institutes.

During the investigation, it added that many of the said students were not even aware of having availed of any such schemes in their names.

The investigation also revealed that they not only controlled the bank accounts of beneficiary students and illegally kept their ATM cards, and phone numbers for self-operation but also illegally used the user IDs and passwords of agents and their micro-ATM machines for transfer and withdrawal of scholarship funds in cash from the bank accounts of the students at various locations.

The statement said that the scholarship funds were credited directly to the students’ accounts, but the accused flouted all the safeguards built into the system.

The investigation also revealed that the arrested people were direct beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime.

The ED had earlier conducted raids on February 16 concerning the case of 10 educational institutions across several districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow.

Crucial evidence was seized about these institutes and several other colleges and institutes which, prima facie, were also found involved in the irregularities.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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