Gandhinagar: The Special Operations Group (SOG) of Gandhinagar Police has arrested Vijay Patel, the alleged mastermind behind a multi-crore scam involving government scholarship schemes. The accused was arrested from Shilaj in Ahmedabad after an investigation revealed that he had systematically misused the original documents of poor and needy students to fraudulently obtain scholarship benefits.

According to investigators, Patel used students’ documents to secure bogus online admissions in diploma courses at an educational institution in Dahegam, Gandhinagar district. Once the admissions were processed, he allegedly opened fake bank accounts to divert scholarship funds released by the government.

Police said the accused linked his own mobile number, or those of his associates, to these accounts, ensuring that all transaction alerts and OTPs were received by him. As a result, neither the students nor the banks were aware that the scholarship funds were being siphoned off.

The investigation has revealed that Patel allegedly operated the network between 2016 and 2019 and illegally obtained crores of rupees meant for welfare scholarship schemes. The scam is believed to have caused significant financial losses to the government exchequer while depriving deserving students of benefits intended for their education.

The Gandhinagar SOG has registered a case against Vijay Patel and begun intensive questioning. Investigators are also probing whether other individuals were involved in the scam and whether the network extended beyond the cases identified so far. DeshGujarat