Ahmedabad: The CID (Crime) registered a case against two men for allegedly siphoning Rs 16.5 lakh from a Gujarat govt financial assistance scheme meant to support students preparing for competitive examinations. The accused allegedly used forged documents to claim benefits on behalf of candidates who never attended coaching classes.The complaint was filed by Sandip Chaudhary (39), an official of the Gujarat Unreserved Educational and Economic Development Corporation (GUEEDC), at the CID (Crime) police station in Gandhinagar.The accused were identified as Jignesh Shah, who allegedly operated a cyber cafe in Nikol, Ahmedabad, and Pujankumar Chauhan of Odhav. The FIR also mentioned that name of unidentified persons involved in the fraud may surface during investigation.According to the complaint, the accused duo allegedly enrolled more than 100 students each from Ahmedabad, Kheda and Surat districts under the corporation’s financial assistance scheme for coaching for competitive examinations.Investigators said that the accused allegedly collected Rs 7.3 lakh from students in Ahmedabad and Kheda districts and another Rs 9.3 lakh from students in Surat for submitting online applications under the scheme.The FIR states that the accused prepared forged receipts and acknowledgements purportedly issued by coaching institutes and submitted them as genuine, despite the students never attending the coaching classes. Using these fabricated documents, they allegedly fraudulently claimed and obtained govt assistance worth Rs 16.5 lakh.Police booked the accused under provisions of the BNS for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, using forged documents as genuine and criminal conspiracy, along with relevant offences related to the misappropriation of govt funds.CID (Crime) officials said the probe will examine the possible involvement of coaching institutes, cyber cafe operators and other persons who may have facilitated the fraudulent applications. Investigators are also scrutinising records to determine whether similar irregularities occurred in applications submitted from other districts under the welfare scheme.
