West Bengal: 11 Arrested In Tablet Scam, Inter-State Connection Suspected

Kolkata: 11 people arrested in connection to the tablet scam in West Bengal.

ADG south Bengal Supratim Sarkar while addressing the media on Friday said that 1911 students have been duped of money given by the state government for buying tablets.

“99.99 per cent students have got the money sent in their accounts. 1911 students have been duped. I have learnt that the state government will give those deprived students money again. We have collected evidence from those who are arrested. This seems to be an inter-state scam. The evidence shows that there are links with Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand,” said Sarkar.

Asked whether the police got any hint about the ‘mastermind’ behind the scam, to which the ADG South Bengal said that the investigation is going on.

“We can inform you when we get concrete evidence. Certain things cannot be said for the process of investigation. The scam has happened through cyber crime and it takes time to investigate cyber crime as lots of data is needed,” further mentioned Sarkar.

Notably, amid ongoing probe on defalcation of funds meant to buy tablets or smartphones for students in Classes XI and XII at a government-aided school under state government’s scheme ‘Taruner Swapno’, most of the arrest related to this scam took place in Chopra in North Dinajpur and then Malda.

Earlier on Friday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the administration has already got hold of the people involved in the scam.

“The police have formed SIT and the administration is taking necessary action. Such a thing also happened in Rajasthan, Maharashtra. Our administration is strong so we could catch the people involved in the scam. Those who are deprived of the money we will give them,” said Mamata.