Retired Odisha authorities officer held in scholarship rip-off

By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch on Thursday, August 12, 2021, arrested Prakash Chandra Rath, a retired underneath secretary to State authorities, for his alleged involvement in a scholarship rip-off amounting to Rs 36.1 lakh.  

Rath was in-charge of Higher Education division’s scholarship part. The division had lodged a grievance with the company alleging monetary mismanagement and irregularities in fee of scholarship throughout 2014-15 educational 12 months.

In its grievance, the division had alleged that a number of ineligible college students had been awarded scholarships resulting in an enormous loss to the federal government exchequer. EOW had registered a case in 2017 and launched an investigation into the matter. After receiving functions, it was the duty of Rath to position them earlier than the monetary advisor for sanctioning the scholarships.

“However, Rath in criminal conspiracy with others had sanctioned scholarships to about 235 ineligible students by violating existing norms,” stated an EOW officer. Rath had additionally obtained kickbacks for sanctioning the quantities to college students who weren’t entitled to scholarships, sources stated.