UP Scholarship Scam: ED arrests chairman of Hardoi pharmacy institute on money laundering charges

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said it has arrested the chairman of a Hardoi-based pharmacy institute as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation into alleged Rs 100-crore scholarship scam in Uttar Pradesh.

Ram Gopal, chairman of Jivika Institute of Pharmacy and manager of Dr B R Ambedkar Educational Society, Hardoi was taken into custody on Friday and a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Lucknow sent him to ED custody for seven days on Saturday, the federal agency said in a statement.

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This is the fifth arrest in this case by the ED. The money laundering case stems from an Uttar Pradesh Police FIR. The probe found that managers and trustees of various institutes got "fake" students admitted to their institutes and applied for scholarships in their names on the government portal with the sole purpose of taking wrongful advantage of government schemes meant for needy students, the ED said.

All the formalities in this regard were completed by the institutes through various agents, it said. The scholarship so received was transferred to accounts of colleges and thereafter withdrawn in cash or ultimately transferred to personal accounts of owners/managers/ trustees or family members.

This resulted in embezzlement of more than Rs 100 crore of government money, the agency alleged. The ED has filed a charge sheet in this case and attached assets worth more than Rs 6 crore of various accused so far.

The scholarship is provided by central and state governments to facilitate the education of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), PH (physically handicapped or specially-abled) students and those belonging to minority communities and economically weaker sections (EWS).