Assam: ED Conduct Raids In Eight Places In Guwahati

The Guwahati branch of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted raids at as many as eight places on August 5. This is linked to the money laundering case against Sewali Devi Sharma, IAS (Retd.) and others.

Sewali Devi Sharma was the responsible officer as the then Executive Chairman cum Director of ODL Cell (Open and Distance learning) of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and was responsible for the implementation of National Council for Teacher Education’s (NCTE) two years Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) programme through distance mode of SCERT. The approval to Government of Assam was for 59 recognized institutions with capacity of 100 each for total 27,897 Government Teachers. However, instead of 59 she opened total 347 of study centres and enrolled 106828 trainees instead of 27897 trainees only in order to collect more funds.

For the above purpose, Sewali Devi Sharma opened 5 bank accounts for ODL Cell where she was the sole signatory, which was in contravention of the Assam Financial Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2005.

Instead of depositing the amount of Rs. 115,12,80,099 received as fees from the individuals in the government treasury, she deposited the received funds in the above said bank accounts opened by her and spent more than Rs. 105 crores without obtaining financial power as per delegation of power Rules of the Government of Assam.

The expenditure was incurred for supplies and execution of works without following the Rules and Procedures and payments were released without complete supply of materials and without execution of works.

The contracts were found to have been given to entities owned/controlled by family members or close associates/ close relatives (which included firms owned by son-in-law, daughter, or associates of Smt. Sewali Devi Sharma) as well as to one Sarang More, CA, who was also Auditor of ODL, Cell. These contracts were awarded without advertisements or invitations for tenders etc. as per the “Procurement Preference Policy, Assam, 2015” mandated for each procurement of above Rs. 5,00,000. Except two parties none had any experience to execute work orders awarded to them and payments were made without the required receipts or verification of actual supply.

In connection with the above the Vigilance Police Station, CM’s Special Vigilance Cell registered an FIR and has chargesheeted Smt. Sewali Devi Sharma and others. The initial enquiry by police reveals disproportionate assets to the tune of more than Rs. 5.7 Crores at the hands of 09,441 at the hands of Sewali Devi Smt. Sewali Devi Sharma for the period when she misused the aforesaid government funds.

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