JAMMU — The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Jammu, has registered FIR No. 09/2025 under Sections 5(1)(c)(d) read with Section 5(2) of the J\&K Prevention of Corruption Act, Svt. 2006, and Section 120-B of the RPC at Police Station ACB Jammu, in connection with the Post-Matric Scholarship scam.
The case has been registered against M.S. Choudhary, the then Director of the Tribal Affairs Department, J\&K (now retired); Shanaz Akhtar Malik of Catalog Computers, Auqaf Complex, Jammu; Humera Banu and Firdous Ahmed of Chirag Institute of IT, Channi Himmat, Jammu; Sham Lal Targotra of JKS Industrial Training Institute, Jindrah Mehlu, R.S. Pura; Jaffer Hussain Wani of Ever Green Institute of Computer Technology, Shastri Nagar, Jammu; Parshotam Bharadwaj of Global Institute of IT, Janipur, Jammu; Ramneek Kour of Pankaj Memorial Charitable Trust for Education and Research, Rajpura Subash Nagar; Puneet Mahajan of Supertech (India) Computer Education, Talab Tillo; and others.
The case pertains to serious irregularities in the implementation of the Post-Matric Scholarship (PMS) scheme for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, funded by the Government of India. Under the scheme, eligible students were to receive ₹18,000 in tuition fees and ₹2,300 as maintenance allowance annually. The objective was to support ST students in completing post-matric and post-secondary education by reimbursing fees charged by recognized institutions.
During verification, it was revealed that several private institutes in Jammu managed to obtain documents of ST students from remote areas and submitted them to the Directorate of Tribal Affairs. However, officials of the department allegedly released large sums of money—amounting to crores—without verifying the authenticity of the institutes, their infrastructure, course content, or the actual enrollment of students.
The investigation further revealed that many of the students in question had neither taken admission nor attended the courses. In some cases, students who had enrolled never attended classes or did so only partially. Despite this, full tuition fees were credited to the bank accounts of various computer institutes. One such institute reportedly inflated student numbers by fraudulently using documents of ST students and opening fake bank accounts in their names, without their knowledge or consent, to claim maintenance allowances—despite lacking mandatory accreditations such as from NIELIT.
By abusing their official positions and acting in criminal conspiracy with institute owners and beneficiaries, the officials of the Directorate of Tribal Affairs allegedly violated the guidelines of the scholarship scheme, manipulated records, and misappropriated government funds during the years 2014 to 2018—causing huge losses to the public exchequer.
Further investigation is underway.