Shimla: In the 181 crore scholarship scam in Himachal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Vikas Bansal, brother of MD of Himalayan Group of Institutions (HGPI) located in Kala Amb and Gulshan Sharma, director of Institute of Technology and Future Management Trends (ITFT) Chandigarh. The ED team has arrested Vikas from Panchkula and Gulshan from Shimla.
Both of them are being questioned after being brought to Shimla late in the evening and presented before the magistrate. During the raid at Vikas Bansal’s house in Panchkula, the ED has also seized many documents. Scholarship scam has taken place in Himachal between the years 2012 to 2017. It is alleged that many educational institutions have embezzled the scholarship amount meant for about 32,000 students of Himachal.
In the money laundering case related to the scam, the ED team raided Vikas Bansal’s bungalow number- 376 in Sector-16 of Panchkula on Thursday morning. Vikas is the brother of Himalayan Group of Institutions MD Rajneesh Bansal. ED team arrested Vikas after a 10-hour operation in Panchkula. Many documents were also seized. Vikas Bansal was also present in the bungalow during the raid.
A team of 10 to 12 ED officials searched the third and fourth floors of the bungalow from 9 am. During this time, no one was allowed to go out. The phones of all the people present in the bungalow were also switched off. At 7 pm, ED arrested Vikas Bansal and took him to Shimla. After questioning Vikas Bansal, ED also arrested Gulshan Sharma, director of ITFT New Chandigarh in Shimla. Both of them were medically examined at Shimla’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital at 8 pm on Thursday, after which they were produced before the magistrate.
In the scholarship scam, CBI has arrested ED’s assistant director in Shimla Vishaldeep, his brother Vikasdeep, cousin Neeraj and Delhi CBI headquarters’ DSP Balbir Singh. It is alleged that ED Assistant Director Vishaldeep had demanded a bribe of 25 crores from the directors of educational institutions named in the scholarship scam to give relief in the money laundering case.