Tab scam 'mastermind', a teacher at a government-aided school in North Dinajpur, held
Telegraph | 30 January 2025
The teacher-in-charge of a government-aided school in North Dinajpur who is suspected to have masterminded the racket that duped over 2,000 students by transferring a government grant for buying tablets or smartphones to others’ accounts was arrested on Wednesday.
Police identified the accused as Muftazul Islam, alias Jewel.
The name, they said, cropped up from various ends during the investigation into the fraud in various police districts.
Jewel, who had been missing for a few months, was arrested at a remote village close to the India-Nepal border on Wednesday, the police said.
“Jewel was the teacher-in-charge of Majhiali High School in North Dinajpur. As complaints poured in that funds allotted by the government for the purchase of tablets and smartphones by plus-II students had been diverted, Jewel went on leave saying he needed to go to Delhi for treatment,” an officer said.
More than 2,000 students have been cheated across the state as the money they were entitled to as part of the Mamata Banerjee government’s Taruner Swapna scheme had not reached them.
The state government transfers ₹10,000 each to the bank accounts of 13 lakh students at the plus-II level so they can tablets or smartphones.
The scheme was launched in 2022 to help students attend online classes as campuses were shut because of the Covid pandemic. The scheme attempted to bridge the digital gap, which affected students from less privileged families when online classes were on.
In Calcutta, more than 100 students reported in 2024 that the money they were supposed to get had not reached them.
“Complaints have been reported in various districts. In most cases, people living in Chopra (North Dinajpur) were found involved. While probing the cases, we found that Jewel was the main man who was running the racket in Chopra. We will be in a position to share more details once our investigation is over,” Joby Thomas K., superintendent of police, Islampur police district, told Metro.
Sources said Jewel, who had access to the data of his school’s students, had manipulated the information to transfer money they were supposed to get to other beneficiary accounts.
The probe also revealed that the user ID for each school to log into a government portal to upload students’ data contained its DISE (District Information System for Education) code, which was followed by the digits “32”.
The schools were given a common, easy-to-guess password which they were asked to reset after logging in for the first time, police officers investigating the complaints said.
The majority of the schools whose plus-II students did not receive the government funds intended for them to buy tablets and smartphones had not reset the password, officers had said.
Also, many of those schools had uploaded data from cyber cafés, making the system vulnerable to breach.