The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Kashmir has filed a chargesheet against the then Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) Tangdhar, , and three other officials in a case involving misappropriation of scholarship funds meant for Pahari-speaking and Gujjar-Bakerwal students during the financial year 2010–2011.
ACB in a statement issued to news agency KINS said, “The case stems from allegations of fraud and embezzlement in the disbursement of government-funded scholarships in the Tangdhar Education Zone, Kupwara. Based on a preliminary verification conducted by the then Vigilance Organization Kashmir (now ACB), it was found that the accused officials, under a criminal conspiracy, inflated the number of beneficiary students and fraudulently withdraw excess funds from the Chief Education Officer Kupwara”.
The ACB has established that the public servants “Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, then In-Charge ZEO Tangdhar, Mohammad Ashraf Paswal, then Junior Assistant, Razia Bano, then Junior Assistant, Shafiqa Rafiq, then Zonal Gender Coordinator were involved”.
“During the probe, investigators uncovered that over 600 fictitious names under the Pahari-speaking category and 150 fictitious names under the Gujjar-Bakerwal category were inserted into the scholarship disbursement registers. The funds fraudulently shown as disbursed to these non-existent students were then misappropriated by the accused officials.
It was further revealed that the officials misled public representatives, including the then MLA Tangdhar and Member of the Advisory Board, by obtaining their signatures on utilization certificates and expenditure statements, falsely claiming that the scholarships had been distributed to genuine students”.
“One of the key accused, Mohammad Ashraf Paswal, was found to have personally received ₹5,00,000, which he credited to his personal account at J&K Bank, Tangdhar. He subsequently withdrew the amount in ten installments of ₹50,000 each, and misappropriated the funds. Notably, Paswal has already been chargesheeted in a separate disproportionate assets case, which is currently under trial at the Anti-Corruption Court Baramulla”.
“The total amount misappropriated in this case stands at 8,30,200, causing a significant loss to the state exchequer.
Following the completion of investigations and after securing the requisite prosecution sanctions, the ACB presented a formal chargesheet against all four accused before the Hon’ble Additional Special Judge Anti-Corruption Court, Baramulla. All accused were produced before the court in custody and were later released on personal bonds.
The court has scheduled the next hearing for September 10, 2025”.(KINS)
