The Enforcement Directorate has seized properties valued at Rs 5.7 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the Uttar Pradesh post-matric scholarship scam, the agency announced on Thursday. The attached properties include the college buildings of the SS Institute of Management in Baksi Ka Talab area of Lucknow. This latest attachment is the fourth in the case, bringing the total value of attached properties to Rs 15.7 crore. The SS Group of institutes, which operates schools and colleges in Lucknow, conducts various management courses, including BBA and MBA programmes. According to the ED, chairman of the SS Group, Praveen Chauhan, along with Ishrat Zafari of the Hagia Group of Institutes and his staff, forged documents for hundreds of students and fraudulently obtained Rs 7.40 crore in scholarship funds from the government. Movable and immovable properties worth Rs 1.7 crore have already been attached, the agency stated. The EDs investigation began based on intelligence and an FIR lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police in the scholarship scam. It was revealed that managers and trustees of various colleges admitted fake students and applied for scholarships in their names through the government portal. The scholarship so received for the fake PH category and handicapped students was transferred to accounts of colleges and thereafter withdrawn in cash or transferred to personal accounts or used for land purchases, building construction, etc., thus, their actions resulted in the embezzlement of more than Rs 100 crore of government money from scholarships by depriving the needy and genuine students, the ED said. Six accused persons have been arrested in the case and are in judicial custody. Three provisional attachment orders attaching various immovable and movable properties worth Rs 10 crore in the name of managers and trustees of various colleges have been issued. Additionally, one prosecution complaint and two supplementary prosecution complaints have been filed against five accused persons before the Special (PMLA) Court, which has taken cognisance of the same.

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