HP scholarship scam: CBI chargesheets 20 institutions and 105 accused

What the Record Shows

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet on 29 March 2024 against 20 educational institutions and 105 individuals in the Himachal Pradesh post-matric scholarship case, alleging that scholarship funds meant for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class students were diverted to private institutions. The accused named in the CBI chargesheet include owners of educational institutes, staff of the Directorate of Higher Education (DoHE), Shimla, bank officials and other private persons. The CBI registered the case in 2019 at the state government's request, and the Himachal Pradesh High Court has monitored the investigation through periodic status reports.

Running in parallel, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Shimla filed two supplementary prosecution complaints under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) before the Special Court (PMLA), Shimla on 28 March 2025, which the court took cognizance of on 1 May 2025. Per the ED, one complaint was filed against Maa Saraswati Educational Trust, which runs the Himalayan Group of Professional Institutions at Kala Amb, and five others, and the second against M/s ITFT Consultancy Pvt Ltd, which ran ITFT College in New Chandigarh, and five others. The ED says it has provisionally attached movable and immovable property valued at approximately Rs 30.5 crore.

This is a chargesheet-and-prosecution-complaint matter at the pre-trial stage, not a conviction. Nothing alleged by either agency has been tried to a verdict, and the accused are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

How It Worked

The ED says it began its money-laundering investigation on the basis of the FIR registered by the CBI, Shimla concerning irregularity in the disbursement of scholarships by the Directorate of Higher Education under the post-matric scholarship scheme for OBC, SC and ST students of Himachal Pradesh. The CBI case is the predicate offence on which the PMLA investigation is built.

The mechanism the CBI describes is a failure of affiliation checks. Per the chargesheet, several institutions used fake letterheads to show false affiliation and mislead the education department, which the CBI says did not carry out physical verification of infrastructure or of the strength of students; institutions are also alleged to have demanded payment from students for the release of scholarships, with roughly 80 per cent of the money diverted to the institutions rather than reaching eligible students.

The ED's account adds the portal detail. Its investigation, the agency alleges, revealed that institutes fraudulently received scholarship funds by claiming amounts for students who were never enrolled and for students who had left without completing their courses. To draw more, the ED alleges, false details were uploaded on the HP e-PASS scholarship portal by fraudulently changing the caste category of students in later years, showing day scholars as hostellers, and claiming a bogus fee structure for distance-education courses.

The procedural chain is documented. The CBI searched about 30 locations and filed its chargesheet on 29 March 2024, with 19 accused arrested in earlier phases. In the PMLA track, the ED arrested four persons on 30 August 2023 and two more, Vikas Bansal, the Vice Chairman of the Himalayan Group, and Gulshan Sharma, the Executive Director of ITFT, on 30 January 2025 on its allegation of money laundering; all six were in judicial custody as of the ED's May 2025 statement.

Who Lost Money

The people the case says lost out are the students. The scholarships were central-scheme money meant for SC, ST and OBC pupils, and, according to the investigation, more than 32,000 genuinely eligible students were deprived of the support they qualified for while the funds went to the institutions instead. Behind them stand the scholarship budgets of the Union ministries that fund these schemes.

The money figures come from different stages and are not interchangeable. The CBI chargesheet puts the fraudulent claims at Rs 181 crore between 2013 and 2017; the Himachal Pradesh High Court, in a January 2026 order, referred to misappropriation of scholarship funds of more than Rs 200 crore. Against those figures, the ED has provisionally attached property of about Rs 30.5 crore.

As with every attachment, that Rs 30.5 crore is frozen, not recovered. None of it has been confiscated or converted back into scholarships, and the gap between the sums alleged and the value secured is wide. For the students the scheme was meant to reach, any restitution lies well in the future, if it comes at all.

Where It Stands Now

On re-checking the official record, the current position is set out in a Himachal Pradesh High Court order of 5 January 2026, in CrMP(M) No. 2795 of 2025. That order records that the trial remains at the charge-framing stage for both the predicate CBI case and the ED's money-laundering complaint; in other words, charges had not yet been framed against the accused as of early 2026. There has been no conviction.

The same order granted bail to Arvind Rajta, a Dealing Assistant in the Directorate of Higher Education described as a common accused across several institution-related complaints, after about two years and four months in custody. The six persons the ED arrested were in judicial custody as of its May 2025 statement, and the ED's Rs 30.5 crore attachment is a provisional measure that must run the PMLA confirmation process.

A chargesheet, and a prosecution complaint, contain allegations, not findings of guilt. The 105 individuals and the institutions named are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and due process continues before the courts in Himachal Pradesh.

What It Means

The instrument at the centre of this matter is not money but verification. On the CBI's account, fake letterheads asserting affiliation the institutions did not hold were enough to unlock disbursement because the disbursing department did not physically check enrolment or infrastructure. Where a subsidy is routed through institutions rather than paid directly and verifiably to beneficiaries, the enrolment check is the whole of the control, and this case is what its absence looks like at scale.

For a reader, the takeaway is about reading the process, not any investment. A chargesheet is the investigating agency's case, not a court's finding; cognizance of a prosecution complaint means a court has agreed to examine it, not that it has been proved; and an attachment freezes assets without returning them. Readers can follow how these subsidy-fraud cases move through Oquilia's enforcement archive, alongside comparable education-fund matters such as the Alirajpur Block Education Office treasury case and the Indore Municipal Corporation fake-bill complaint.

FAQ

Does this mean the people named are guilty?

No. A chargesheet and a prosecution complaint contain allegations, not findings of guilt. The 20 institutions and 105 individuals named are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and due process continues before the courts in Himachal Pradesh. As of the January 2026 High Court order, charges had not even been framed.

What did the CBI and the ED allege?

The CBI chargesheet alleges that institutions used fake letterheads and false affiliation to draw scholarship funds for SC, ST and OBC students, about 80 per cent of which was diverted to the institutions. The ED alleges the funds were laundered, including by uploading false student details on the HP e-PASS portal and altering caste categories.

How much money is involved?

The figures differ by stage. The CBI chargesheet cites Rs 181 crore in fraudulent claims for 2013 to 2017; the High Court referred in January 2026 to more than Rs 200 crore misappropriated; and the ED has provisionally attached about Rs 30.5 crore in assets. They are not the same figure and should not be added together.

Have the students got their scholarships back?

No. The ED's Rs 30.5 crore attachment is frozen, not recovered, and nothing has yet been confiscated or returned. The investigation says more than 32,000 eligible students were deprived; any restitution would follow only after the cases are decided.

Where can I read the official record?

The Enforcement Directorate's press release of 6 May 2025 on its supplementary prosecution complaints, and the Himachal Pradesh High Court's bail order of 5 January 2026, are both public and are linked below.

This report is based on the Enforcement Directorate press release dated 6 May 2025 and the Himachal Pradesh High Court order dated 5 January 2026 in CrMP(M) No. 2795 of 2025, alongside the CBI chargesheet reported on 30 March 2024, reviewed on 2 August 2026.