KOLKATA: The West Bengal police froze around 797 bank accounts from various parts of the state in the school tablet purchase scam, arresting 22 people from various districts in this connection.
According to state police it is a huge racket and investigations are on to nab others associated with the scam. They also claimed to have received inputs that many other bank accounts are involved in the scam.
The cyber scam targeting West Bengal's 'Taruner Swapno' scheme, has affected 1,911 students out of the total 16 lakh beneficiaries. The West Bengal Police have registered 93 FIRs and arrested 11 people in connection with the fraud.
Under the scheme, higher secondary students in government-aided schools and madrasas get a one-time benefit of Rs 10,000 to purchase tabs for educational purposes. The money directly gets credited to the bank account of students after the concerned school puts the data and bank account details of the eligible students on a government portal.
The school authorities need to log into the portal using the user ID of the school to create the database. Police said, as per preliminary investigation, the scammers managed to hack the user ID and password of targeted schools and replaced the students' bank accounts with theirs'.
South Bengal Additional Director General Supratim Sarkar said the investigation has revealed the involvement of cybercriminal gangs operating across multiple states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe the case. Kolkata Police and the CID department are conducting raids across the state to nab the hackers and the mastermind behind the fraud.
A probe into the complaints lodged in Kolkata found that, in most cases, the money went into the bank accounts of residents of Chopra, Islampur and nearby areas.