GUWAHATI Days after the arrest of Chhattisgarh’s Ranu Sahu in an alleged coal scam, the Assam police has submitted a “comprehensive” chargesheet against an IAS officer on charges of misappropriating education-related funds.
According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell, the charge sheet before a special court was filed in connection with a ₹105-crore scam in the State Council of Educational Research Training (SCERT) in Assam.
The 1,433-page charge sheet describes the activities of Sewali Devi Sharma, a 1992-batch IAS officer from Rajasthan and a former executing chairperson and director of the SCERT, and 20 others allegedly involved in the scam.
All 21 were arrested earlier.
Five of the 20 are government servants — L.N. Sonowal, Jaychandra Lahkar, Sonmoni Nath, Ramezuddin Ahmed, and Rubul Ali — while five others are contractors, including Ajit Pal Singh, said to be the IAS officer’s son-in-law.
Of the remaining 10 arrested persons charge-sheeted, eight are RTI activists and two are journalists.
“The charge sheet was filed within 87 days (of taking up the case),” Rosie Kalita, the cell’s Superintendent of Police, said.
“Further investigation against the remaining people yet to be probed and arrested will continue,” she said.
The special court had granted permission for a departmental inquiry to be conducted into the roles played by the six government employees in the SCERT scam, officials said.
The alleged scam took place during Ms. Sharma’s tenure as the head of the SCERT between 2017 and 2020. Investigators said she opened five bank accounts without the consent of the Assam government and “masterminded the embezzlement of ₹105 crore” without showing any work orders.
