Scholarship scam in Tripura: 34 students accused of submitting fake income certificates; FIR likely

Agartala: The Tripura government is considering filing FIRs against 34 tribal students accused of submitting fraudulent income certificates to secure post-matric scholarships, an official said here on Thursday.

A senior official from the Tribal Welfare Department confirmed that show cause notices had been issued to the students for allegedly providing false income certificates to get post-matric scholarships.

“We will wait for replies from the 34 students till April 16. If they failed to reply to the show cause notices by April 16 or if their replies are not satisfactory, then we would register FIR against all the 34 students,” the official said.

During the 2023-24 academic year, over 35,660 tribal students applied for post-matric scholarships through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP), with 34,436 receiving grants totalling ₹68.13 crore.

As a part of the scholarship, the government bears the entire fees of the eligible students of the educational institutions to pursue different courses.

When the Tribal Welfare Department officials conducted a thorough scrutiny of the documents submitted by the concerned students, it was found that 34 students belonging to different districts had applied for post-matric scholarship for the 2023-24 academic year through the NSP uploading bogus income certificates.

Submission of any forged income certificates or any other required document seeking scholarship or any other financial support constitutes embezzlement of public money and official document forgery and cheating the authority amounts to a criminal offence, the official clarified.

Of the 34 accused students, three are from Gomati district, four from Khowai, eight from West Tripura, 13 from Sepahijala, two each from Dhalai and South Tripura, and one each from North Tripura and Unakoti.

IANS