105-Crore SCERT Scam: Prime Accused Sewali Devi Sharma Apprehended in Rajasthan

In a major development to the 105-crore SCERT scam case, the Chief Minister's Special Vigilance Cell (CM’s SVC) apprehended the suspended IAS officer Sewali Devi Sharma and her contractor son-in-law Ajit Pal Singh from Cross Lane hotel in Rajasthan’s Ajmer on the wee hours.

Both the accused were on the run following the unearthing of the Rs 105 crore funds embezzlement case.

Along with the Sewali Devi and Ajit Paul Singh, the sleuths of the CM’s SVC have also apprehended another person namely Rahul Amin and one house help from the hotel. All of them will be brought to Assam on transit remand after producing them before a court in Rajasthan.

The CM’s SVC earlier arrested six people in connection with the massive scam were produced before the special judge’s court.

Those who were produced before the court included Congress leader Rajesh Joshi. The others were Lakhinarayan Sonowal, Jayanta Lahkar, Ramizuddin Ahmed, Saranga More and Rubul Ali.

According to reports, the 105- crore SCERT scam involves spending funds in the name of offering a Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.) course under the Open Distance Learning (ODL) system. The alleged financial irregularities took place from 2017 to 2022.

The sources reveal that suspended SCERT Director-in-Charge Sewali Devi Sarma gave most of the contracts to her family members, including her in-laws. What is more surprising, according to the sources, is that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) numbers of many of these firms were fake.

Devi allegedly transferred funds from the official bank accounts to the accounts of other employees and then withdrew the money from those accounts. It has also come to light that Sewali Devi Sarma had flouted guidelines and rules and started 347 centres for the D.El.Ed. course under Open Distance Learning (ODL)—288 more than the number of centres for which the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) had given permission. Most of these centres were allegedly fake ones.

Also Read: Another Person Detained in Connection to 105-Crore SCERT Scam