Vadodara: Panchmahal district primary education officer (DPEO) Gayatri Patel has been named as an accused in the Rs 2.79-crore procurement scam that surfaced a few months ago.Police said Patel’s name was included in the charge-sheet filed in the case.“Investigations revealed Patel’s involvement in the scam. The three accused arrested earlier also told us that she was part of the irregularities. Based on the evidence gathered during the probe, we named her as an accused in the charge-sheet. She is yet to be arrested,” said Hasmukh Gameti, police inspector, Godhra B Division.Gameti said Patel was serving as DPEO when the alleged irregularities took place. “It is difficult to believe that such a large-scale financial irregularity could have taken place without her knowledge,” he said.Earlier, police had arrested Puja joshi, Nitin Patel and Jiten Baria.The scam came to light after the Panchmahal district development officer (DDO) ordered a probe into alleged irregularities in the procurement of equipment for primary schools. The inquiry revealed that officials had allegedly shown on record the purchase of computer hardware, peripherals and security equipment worth Rs 2.79 crore. Payments were made to the agencies despite the material allegedly never being delivered or received by the schools.During the investigation, police found that three agencies based in Rajkot and one in Godhra had been awarded orders for supplying the material. An accounts officer from the DDO’s office examined the records of the district primary education department and subsequently lodged an FIR against seven people.“Of the accused arrested so far, two worked for an agency hired by the government, while another was an employee of a private firm. We have also named the owners of the agencies from Rajkot and Godhra as accused. They had sought anticipatory bail, but their applications were rejected by the court. We will arrest them as well,” Gameti said.
