BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch on Thursday, August 12, 2021, arrested Prakash Chandra Rath, a retired under secretary to State government, for his alleged involvement in a scholarship scam amounting to Rs 36.1 lakh.
Rath was in-charge of Higher Education department’s scholarship section. The department had lodged a complaint with the agency alleging financial mismanagement and irregularities in payment of scholarship during 2014-15 academic year.
In its complaint, the department had alleged that several ineligible students were awarded scholarships leading to a huge loss to the government exchequer. EOW had registered a case in 2017 and launched an investigation into the matter. After receiving applications, it was the responsibility of Rath to place them before the financial advisor for sanctioning the scholarships.
“However, Rath in criminal conspiracy with others had sanctioned scholarships to about 235 ineligible students by violating existing norms,” said an EOW officer. Rath had also received kickbacks for sanctioning the amounts to students who were not entitled to scholarships, sources said.