NAINITAL:The Uttarakhand high court (HC) on Friday asked the state government to submit its reply over the alleged multi-crore SC/ST scholarship scam after a SIT probe revealed that some students of private universities in Haridwar claimed benefits using forged caste certificates.The scheme is run by the state social welfare department who transfer the amount into the bank account of the beneficiaries.The petition filed by Dehradun-based Ravindra Jugran has alleged that the scam has been going around from 2004, and the corruption is “still in motion” where Rs 500 crore has been siphoned off till now.“The scam is huge and the money is being siphoned off by many. There is a chain of brokers, politicians and bureaucrats involved. I filed the petition to stop the abuse of public money meant for the marginalized class,” Jagran told TOI.The HC has asked the state to file its reply within three weeks. The next date of hearing has been scheduled to January 10, 2018.Earlier, in April 2018, the state police department had set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged financial irregularities in the distribution of SC/ST scholarship. The team was formed after police received complaints that colleges in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh claimed scholarship money from the state social welfare department allegedly after showing fake students.SSP (Haridwar) Ridhim Agarwal told TOI that after the inquiry report submitted by the SIT a case was registered under sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty including delivery of property), 120b (criminal conspiracy) and 408 (criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

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