Bengal’s probe into diversion of school grants focus on interstate cyber crime

West Bengal-based cyber criminals and their counterparts from other states diverted the Mamata Banerjee government’s one-time grant of ₹10,000 for Class 11 and 12 students for buying tablets or smartphones, the state police suspect after a week-long investigation and 14 arrests.
The probe revealed that ISFC codes of bank branches and account numbers of the intended beneficiaries were changed to divert a fraction of the total funds to banks in other parts of Bengal, police from several districts, including Kolkata, told HT.
In some cases, the money went to banks in Bihar, Jharkhand and even Punjab.
“Ninety-three cases have been registered and 11 people arrested across Bengal till today. The funds have not reached the bank accounts of 1,911 students so far,” Supratim Sarkar, additional director general of police, south Bengal, said on Friday afternoon.
“Our probe indicates that this cybercrime network may have links with similar ones operating in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand where money sent to beneficiaries of social welfare schemes through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system was diverted in the past,” the ADG said, adding that most of those arrested in Bengal live in North Dinajpur district’s Chopra and Malda district’s Baishnabnagar area.
“These two places seem to be hubs of the crime in Bengal. Three men were arrested on Friday by the East Midnapore district police. Two of them are from Malda while one lives in Chopra,” said Sarkar.
“We cannot say precisely how this operation was carried out unless we check every point in the chain,” he said.
At least three more arrests were made between Friday, when Sarkar spoke, and Sunday afternoon.
Around 1.6 million students will receive the grant this year, Sarkar pointed out.
“The students affected so far comprise only a small fraction, around 0.1 %, of the beneficiaries,” he added.
Requesting anonymity, a police officer of the district cybercrime cell said: “The bank account details of a beneficiary is uploaded on a designated government portal by the staff of the respective school. A limited number of officials of the district school department and the state education department have access to this database. All users have to use passwords. We are trying to locate the IP addresses from which the data were altered in each of these cases.”
In 2022, chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched the West Bengal Taruner Swapna Scheme, promising one-time assistance of ₹10,000 to Class 12 students of state-run and state-sponsored schools and madrasahs for buying tablets or smartphones. She announced earlier this year that Class 11 students can apply for the scheme as well instead of waiting for their annual exam.
According to the government’s website, more than 36 million students have benefited from this scheme till now. The money is credited to bank accounts through the DBT system. In the districts, students who don’t have bank accounts use the ones of their parents.
The chief minister, who ordered the formation of special investigation teams before leaving for a north Bengal tour earlier this week, spoke in public on this issue for the first time before returning to Kolkata on Friday.
“The money will be given again to the deprived students. These people have hijacked funds in Rajasthan and Maharashtra as well. We are the ones who have detected this. We will arrest everybody and recover the money,” Banerjee, who is also in charge of the home department, said at north Bengal’s Bagdogra airport.
Opposition leaders have, however, started accusing Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) of letting its district-level workers steal taxpayers’ money although only one arrested suspect, Shraban Sarkar, a cyber cafe owner in Malda, has been found to be the son of Jitendra Sarkar, a community block-level TMC leader.
“My son knew nothing about computers. Rocky Sheikh, another cyber cafe owner arrested by East Burdwan district police, taught him everything,” Jitendra Sarkar told the media.
“All those arrested will face the music. Mamata Banerjee has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to crime,” Asish Kundu, TMC’s Malda district spokesperson said.
Making things difficult for the investigators, some of the complaints indicate that not all cases of diversion of funds involve cyber criminals.
A police officer said: “The money meant for a student at a girl’s school in Birbhum district’s Kirnahar went to the bank account of another student of the same school who passed out three years ago. This looks like an error by a data entry operator.”
An East Midnapore district police officer said: “In a few cases, only the last three or four digits of the bank account numbers were altered, resulting in the money getting credited into the accounts of people who were not even aware of the online transfer. It is possible that this happened due to human error.”
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the Bengal legislative assembly, alleged that TMC workers in the districts are running the operation.
“They must have thought that if their top leaders can make millions why can’t they steal ₹10,000 meant for a student. TMC is letting its workers steal tax payers’ money,” Adhikari said.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh targeted BJP-ruled states to counter Adhikari.
“People representing a party that doesn’t provide students in other states with tablets or smartphones need not rack their brains. This crime has no link with politics,” said Ghosh.