Jammu, May 27 – The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Jammu, has registered FIR No. 09/2025 under sections 5(1)(c)(d) read with 5(2) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, Svt. 2006 and section 120-B of the RPC at Police Station ACB Jammu against several individuals, including M.S. Choudhary, the then Director of Tribal Affairs (now retired), over grave financial irregularities in the implementation of the Post-Matric Scholarship (PMS) scheme for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students.
The case names eight primary accused, including private institute owners from Jammu, who allegedly colluded with officials from the Directorate of Tribal Affairs to embezzle crores of rupees under the PMS scheme between 2014 and 2018. The accused include Shanaz Akhtar Malik (Catalog Computers), Humera Banu and Firdous Ahmed (Chirag Institute of IT), Sham Lal Targotra (JKS-ITI), Jaffer Hussain Wani (Ever Green Institute), Parshotam Bharadwaj (Global Institute of IT), Smt. Ramneek Kour (Pankaj Memorial Charitable Trust), and Puneet Mahajan (Supertech India).
Investigations reveal gross violations in the disbursement of funds, with scholarships awarded to students who neither enrolled nor attended the courses. In some cases, fake bank accounts were created in the names of ST students without their knowledge to siphon off maintenance allowances. It was also found that many institutes lacked recognition or proper accreditation but still received hefty government funds.
The PMS scheme, funded by the Government of India, aimed to provide financial aid (₹18,000 per student plus ₹2,300 maintenance allowance) to ST candidates pursuing post-matric education. However, officials allegedly failed to verify the authenticity of the institutes, their infrastructure, or the end-use of the scholarship funds before sanctioning payments.
The ACB stated that this large-scale manipulation and criminal conspiracy resulted in the misappropriation of public funds, causing a significant loss to the government exchequer. The investigation into the scam is currently ongoing.
ACB Files FIR Against Former Director Tribal Affairs M.S. Choudhary and Others in Multi-Crore Scholarship Scam
