Jammu and Kashmir Police's Crime Branch today arrested owners of two colleges for their alleged involvement in Elementary Teacher Training (ETT) Institutes scam in the state.
Crime Branch, Jammu arrested two persons-- Munish Suri, promoter and sole trustee of a college in Kathua and Sudarshan Kumar Gupta, chairman of another college in Kathua for their involvement in ETT Institutes case, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Crime Branch, Jammu, Mubassir Latifi said.
"An inquiry conducted by Joint Secretary of J&K Board of School Education revealed that Elementary Teachers Training Course conducted by ETT Institutes in the state is a huge scandal where money in hundreds of crores has exchanged hands as bribe," the officer said.
"All sorts of malpractices have been done as neither registration of candidates is done in time nor classes are started nor the hostel facilities were provided," he said.
The police officer said that the candidates were lured and amount ranging between Rs 45,000 to 80,000 was taken from each student each year for the two-year course through touts for providing them the degrees and certificates by the erring institutions.
"The institutions did not fulfill even the basic norms and standards laid down by National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE)," the SSP said.
"This huge scandal was run by a mafia in league with J&K Board of School Education authorities," he added.
Crime Branch Jammu probed the matter thoroughly, visited all the institutes on record and found "glaring discrepancies" and nonexistent infrastructure in a number of such institutes, he added.
