Jammu, 27 May (H.S.): The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has registered a case against a former Director of Tribal Affairs Department (TAD), officials, and private institutes over serious irregularities in the implementation of the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme meant for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in Jammu and Kashmir.
An ACB official said that the case, registered against MS Choudhary, then Director TAD, Shanaz Akhtar Malik of Catalog Computers, Aquaf Complex Jammu, Humera Banu and Firdous Ahmed (Chirag Insitte of IT, Channi Himmat Jammu), Sham Lal Targotra (JKS-Industrial Training Institute, Jindar Mehlu, RS Pura), Jaffar Hussain Wani (Ever Green Institute of Computer Technology, Shastri Nagar Jammu), Parshotam Bhardwaj (Global Institute of IT, Janipur, Jammu), Ramneek Kour (Pankaj Memorial Charitable Trust for Education and Research, Rajpura, Subash Nagar), Puneet Mahajan of Supertech (India) Computer Education, Talab Tillo and others under FIR number 09/2025 at Police Station ACB Jammu, pertains to large-scale misuse of Government funds between 2014 and 2018.
According to him, the accused allegedly violated the guidelines by releasing crores of rupees to unrecognized institutions running unapproved courses, without verifying their credentials or ensuring the actual enrolment and participation of students.
He said the scholarship scheme-funded by the Government of India-was aimed at helping ST students pursue post-matric education by providing financial assistance, including Rs 18,000 as tuition and Rs 2,300 as maintenance allowance per student.
“However, several private institutes allegedly collected documents of students from far-flung areas, submitted them to the Directorate of Tribal Affairs, and received funds fraudulently without delivering the promised training,” he said.
The ACB official said the verification revealed that many students neither enrolled nor attended the courses, yet the full scholarship amounts were released.
In some cases, he said, fake bank accounts were opened in students’ names without their knowledge to claim the maintenance allowance.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Krishan Kumar
