New Delhi, Nov 8 (UNI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Guwahati Zonal Office, said it has attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs 6.40 crore in connection with a money laundering case involving Sewali Devi Sharma, ACS, the then Executive Chairman-cum-Director of the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Cell under the Government of Assam, and others.
The ED initiated the probe based on an FIR registered by the Vigilance Police Station, Chief Minister’s Special Cell, Assam, against Sewali Devi Sharma and her associates under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. They are accused of misappropriating government funds amounting to Rs 105.76 crore.
According to the ED, its investigation revealed that during her tenure between 2017 and 2021, Sharma, in her capacity as Executive Chairman-cum-Director of the ODL Cell under the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Assam, unauthorisedly approved 347 study centres and enrolled 1,06,828 trainees, exceeding the government’s sanctioned limit of 59 study centres and 27,897 trainees approved by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), New Delhi, for the two-year Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.) programme through distance mode.
As a result, she collected Rs 115.12 crore in fees from the unauthorisedly enrolled trainees. Instead of depositing the funds into the government treasury, Sharma allegedly opened five bank accounts in the name of the ODL Cell under her sole authority, despite not having any financial powers under the Government of Assam’s delegation of financial powers.
Further investigation established that Sewali Devi Sharma and her associates diverted and siphoned off the funds from the ODL Cell’s accounts by transferring them to her personal accounts, as well as to those of her family members and close associates. The diverted funds were then used to acquire various movable and immovable properties in their names.
Further investigation into the matter is ongoing.
