Nagpur, June 26: The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials of Nagpur division has arrested thirteen people, all employees of government-aided hostels (ashram) for indulging in corrupt practices. According to the information received the accused used to inflate the attendance of the students of their ashrams to obtain the benefits of government schemes and grants.

As per the mandate, some percentage of attendance is required to obtain government benefits. Therefore, the hostel authority escalated the attendance ratio of the students enrolled over there. To prove their corrupt practices legal, the officials also provided false attendance report of class five to class seven. Moreover, they also added fictitious names by filing fake leaving certificates of the students.

The accused arrested by the ACB officials are as follow:

1)Shrikrishn Ramdas Mate, age 55, Secretary, Gramoddhar Vidyaprasarak Shikshan Sanstha, Hingna, Dist Nagpur

2) Mukesh Shrikrishn Mate, age 30, Lower Div Clerk, Ahilyadevi Holkar aided Aashram Shala, Hingna

3) Amol Vasantrao Panchbudhe, age 39, Head Master, Ahilyabai Holkar Aashram Shala

4) Damodar Ramdas Hargude, age 43, Head Master, primary Ahilyabai Holkar Aashram Shala

5) Vijay Bhimraoji Bele, age 59, Retd Education Development Officer, Ekatmik Tribal Development Project, Chandrapur

6) Pundlik Natthuji Raghurte, age 60, Retd Asst Project Officer ( Education ), Project Offc Deori, Gondia

7) Tejbahadur Shrawan Tidke, age 51, Dist Planning Officer, Collector officer, Gadchiroli

8) Rajesh Bhaudas Medhram, age 47, lower Education Development Officer, Ekatmik Tribal Development Project Offc Nagpur

9) NileshJaywant Rathod, age 31, Lower Div Clerk, Ekatmik Tribal Development Project Offc, Nagpur

10) Vasant Yaduji Bhivgade, age 54, Lower Education Development Officer, Ekatmik Tribal Development Project office, Gadchiroli

11) Hariram Manuji Madavi, age 59, Retd Add Commissioner, Tribal Development Dept

12) Ramdas Karuji Nandedhwar, age 57, Tribal Development Inspector, Ekatmik Tribal Development Project Offc, Aheri, Dist Gadchiroli

13) D. S. Nivekar, accounts officer

Besides, to earn hefty sums of money from government schemes, they also allegedly provided external validation certificate to show the authority how students from other states have enrolled in their hostel.

As per the sources, when ACB laid the trap they recovered disproportionate cash of Rs. 61,51,532 from the hostel administrative office. In addition to this, criminal sections --125/2018, u/sec 13(1) (c) (d) r/w 13 (2) under Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act 1988, and under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Act sections --420, 468,471, 34 have been registered against the accused who have been arrested.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 26, 2018 04:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).