Guwahati: A day after their arrest, the court of Special Judge Dipak Thakuria on May 4 remanded the six accused persons to two-day police custody for further investigation. They will be produced before the court on May 6.
On May 3, Assam Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell arrested six persons, including a Congress leader and a chartered accountant (CA) in connection with the Rs 105 crore ODL-SCERT scam.
However, two other key accused, including senior IAS officer and former executive chairman and director of SCERT Sewali Devi Sharma, are yet to be arrested.
Another accused Ajit Paul Singh is also yet to be arrested, sources here said. Singh is also the son-in-law of Sewali Devi Sharma.
The Assam government has already suspended Sewali Devi Sharma over financial irregularities and misappropriation of funds.
The six accused who were arrested by CM’s SVC are: Dr LN Sonowal, nodal officer cum deputy director, ODL-SCERT (retired), Jaychandra Lahkar, accountant, ODL-SCERT, Rubul Ali, stenographer, ODL-SCERT, Ramijuddin, LDA, ODL-SCERT, Sarang More, a chartered account of ODL-SCERT (who is also the proprietor of 5 firms to receive Rs 13 crore from ODL-SCERT) and Rajesh Kumar Joshi, elder son-in-law of Sewali Devi, who owns two firms and worked for ODL-SCERT.
They have been charged with CM’S SVC case No 03/2023 under section 120B/406/409/201/420/468/ 471 of IPC read with section 7A/12/13(1)a/13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act,1988, read with section 8 of Assam Financial Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2005 and read with section 41 of Assam Public Procurement Act, 2017.
Joshi was also the general secretary of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), who resigned from his post after the CM’s SVC registered the case on April 28.
The investigation revealed that Sewali Devi Sharma had opened five bank accounts of SCERT and she was the sole signatory of these accounts which were opened without following FRBM rules. The investigation revealed that
She allegedly transferred funds from these official bank accounts to the accounts of other employees and then withdrew the money from those accounts.
As per National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) guidelines, 22 centres were supposed to be opened in Assam under SCERT which would offer Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) course. Besides these, 59 centres should have been opened to offer the D.El.Ed course under Open Distance Learning (ODL).
However, Sewali Devi Sharma flouted all guidelines and rules and started 347 centres for D.El.Ed course under Open Distance Learning (ODL) – 288 more than the number of centres for which the NCTE had given permission. Moreover, it was shown on the record that around 1.06 lakh teachers had received D.El.Ed training in the centres. Accordingly, there should have over 23 lakh answer sheets. But a probe has revealed that the number of teachers who received training had been manipulated. Also, many of the centres started for D.El.Ed courses under Open Distance Learning (ODL) were allegedly fake.
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SCERT, Assam had floated many tenders for various works. An amount of Rs 54 crore had been released for works like the construction of smart classrooms, renovation of the office of the SCERT, deep tube well installation etc. Sources said that 80% of the contracts were allegedly awarded to Sewali Devi Sarma’s son-in-law and 20% of the contracts were given to four other contractors. The CM’s SVC and the Assam Public Works Department (PWD) are assessing the construction works that have been completed. Sources further said that Rs 30 lakh had allegedly been transferred to six unknown accounts.
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