ED arrests 3 owners of education institutes in scholarship scam in UP

LUCKNOW: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday arrested three owners of educational institutes in connection with a scholarship scam.
Those arrested were identified as Izhar Hussain Jafri, Ali Abbas Jafri and Ravi Prakash Gupta. ED also got a five-day remand of the three accused for further questioning.
The arrests came after ED raids on 10 educational institutes across several districts of UP on February 16. It allegedly seized crucial evidence of the offence not only of these 10 institutes but also in respect of several other colleges and institutes which, prima facie, were also found engaged in the scam.
ED investigation revealed that the trio were operating the scam from Hygia Group of colleges and fraudulently obtained scholarship funds using Aadhar and bank details of ineligible persons shown as students.
During investigation, it came to fore that many of the said students were not even aware of having availed any such schemes in their names.
Ravi Prakash Gupta, Izhar Hussain Jafri, Ali Abbas Jafri in conspiracy with agents of FINO payment bank diverted scholarship funds from students' accounts to the bank accounts of Hygia group of colleges and other persons and institutes, said ED sources.
During investigation, it was also revealed that in commission of the offence, Izhar Hussain Jafri, Ali Abbas Jafri and Ravi Prakash Gupta not only controlled the bank accounts of beneficiary students in FINO bank account and illegally kept their ATM cards, phone numbers for self-operation but also illegally used the user IDs and passwords of FINO agents and their micro ATM machines for transfer and withdrawal of the scholarship funds in cash from the bank accounts of the students at various locations, said sources in ED.
Investigation unearthed that the arrested persons are direct beneficiaries of proceeds of crime.