In the Shimla scholarship scam, a team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided Panchkula for 13 hours. This raid was conducted at the house of Vishal Bansal, who had filed a complaint against former ED assistant director Vishal Deep, who is accused in this case.
The team arrived at 9 am and left at around 9 pm. After questioning and looking at the documents throughout the day, the ED team arrested Vikas Bansal, brother of Rajneesh Bansal, director of Himachal Group of Institutions, located in Kala Amb, and took him away.
Two weeks ago, gangster Lawrence’s henchman Rohit Gurjar called Vikas Bansal and threatened him to withdraw the complaint against the ED assistant director. Vishal is the brother of businessman Rajneesh Bansal. The person who threatened him had said that your family should withdraw from the case that it is pursuing. Otherwise, the whole family will be killed. If you want to save your life, you will have to pay 50 lakh rupees.
Vishal Deep has been arrested from Mumbai
Vishal Deep, former assistant director of ED, who was absconding in the Shimla scholarship scam case, was arrested by the police from Mumbai 2 weeks ago. A case was registered against him on the complaint of Vishal Bansal, brother of Sector-16 resident Rajneesh Bansal, in which the investigation is going on.
The accused is accused of threatening to kill and demanding extortion of Rs 50 lakh in Sector-14 police station of Panchkula. The police have produced the accused in the court and interrogated him on remand.
Case registered against 29 educational institutions
This scholarship scam took place in Himachal Pradesh between the years 2012-17. In this case, the CBI investigated and registered a case of fraud against 29 educational institutions of Himachal in the year 2019. Also, a case of money laundering (PMLA) was also registered by Shimla ED in this case. It was being investigated by Vishal Deep, Assistant Director of Shimla Sub Zonal Office.
Bribe of Rs 2.5 crore was demanded
In this case, Vishal Deep had demanded a bribe of Rs 2.5 crore from the directors of educational institutions. In lieu of this, a case of corruption was also registered by Chandigarh CBI. In this case, Vishal Deep’s real brother and maternal aunt’s son were also arrested by CBI, while Vishal Deep was arrested from Mumbai and he also got bail on the spot from the district court.
Investigation started on the complaint of former minister
After the complaint of former minister Ramlal Markanda, the education department started investigating this case. The investigation revealed irregularities in issuing scholarships to 2.38 lakh SC, ST and OBC students from the year 2013-14 to 2016-17.
During this period, scholarships were distributed to 2772 educational institutions, which included 266 private educational institutions. An amount of Rs 210 crore was given to private institutions and Rs 56 crore to government institutions. Out of 2.38 lakh students, 19915 were issued money in bank accounts linked to 4 mobile phone numbers. The case was also related to big educational institutions and other states. After this, the government recommended a CBI inquiry.
