Shimla: In a matter pertaining to wrongful and illegal disbursement and misappropriation of the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme to SC, ST and OBC students, Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed the CBI to expedite the process of completion of the investigation and file the charge sheets at the earliest.
The orders were passed by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Sandeep Sharma, on a writ petition filed by the petitioner Shyam Lal.
The petitioner has alleged that State Project Officer (SPM NIU Shimla), Shakti Bhushan, who was appointed by the State to inquire into the matter of misappropriation of the financial scholarships under the Centrally Sponsored Post Matric Scholarships Scheme for the students belonging to SC, ST and OBC, after conducting the inquiry, lodged an FIR in the year 2018, under the directions of Secretary (Education).
The petitioner has further alleged that the inquiry report revealed that a huge sum of scholarship money was misappropriated. Apart from the educational institutions within the state, scores of educational institutions stationed in other states were also involved in this scam.
Consequently, the matter was handed over to the CBI for a proper and thorough investigation by the state.
The petitioner has prayed to direct the State Government to hand over a complete investigation of all cases and errant institutions to the CBI.
The petitioner has further prayed to direct CBI to investigate all institutions named by Shakti Bhushan and thereafter to bring such investigations to the logical conclusion by filing criminal cases against all the errant institutions named in the list without any exception.
