CBI files charge sheet against 12 in Himachal scholarship scam

The CBI filed a charge sheet against 12 people on Monday in connection with a Rs 220-crore scholarship scam in Himachal Pradesh, officials said.

The agency has named five of the then officials of K C Group of Institutions in the case of irregularities in disbursal of pre-matric and post-matric scholarships for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities, the police said.

The then officials of the Directorate of Higher Education -- Arvind Rajta, Mala Mehta, Shriram Sharma, Surinder Mohan Kanwar, Ashok Kumar, Virender Kumar -- have been named as accused in the charge sheet.

The then officials of K C Group of Institutions -- Saroj Sharma, B S Sandhu, Hitesh Gandhi, Prem Pal Gandhi, Kiran Choudhary -- and Surinder Pal Singh, who was the head cashier at the Central Bank of India, Nawanshahr, Punjab, have been named as accused.

The CBI had registered a case last May on the request of Himachal Pradesh government, agency spokesperson R K Gaur said.

It had taken over the investigation of a case earlier registered by the police against unknown persons on allegations of misappropriation of funds in the disbursement of the scholarships, the spokesperson added.