On Saturday, IAS Officer Sewali Devi Sharma, involved in the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) scam, had her bail request rejected by a court in Guwahati.
In May 2023, the Chief Minister’s special vigilance cell arrested Sewali in relation to the 105-crore SCERT scam. It’s noteworthy that authorities detained her, along with her son-in-law and contractor Ajit Pal Singh, at the Cross Lane Hotel in Ajmer, Rajasthan.
As per reports, the 105-crore SCERT scam revolves around misappropriating funds ostensibly designated for providing a Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.) course through the Open Distance Learning (ODL) system. The purported financial irregularities occurred between 2017 and 2022.
Insiders indicate that the suspended Director-in-chief of SCERT, Sewali Devi Sarma, awarded the majority of contracts to her relatives, including in-laws. What’s even more astonishing, as per these sources, is that many of these companies had fraudulent Goods and Services Tax (GST) numbers.
Allegedly, Devi transferred funds from official bank accounts to the accounts of fellow employees and subsequently withdrew the funds from those accounts.
Additionally, it has been revealed that Sewali Devi Sarma violated guidelines and regulations by establishing 347 centres for the D.El.Ed. course under Open Distance Learning (ODL)—an excess of 288 centres beyond the authorised number permitted by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). Many of these centres were purportedly fraudulent.
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