New Delhi: The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of Delhi on Thursday arrested the principal and guest teacher of a government school who had been suspended last week after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia found huge irregularities in financial transactions of the institution.
Principal Bishan Lal (57) and guest teacher Shaukat Ali (27) of Rajendra Prasad Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in central Delhi's President Estate have been arrested for allegedly embezzling government money, a senior official said.
During a surprise inspection on April 15, Sisodia, who also holds the Education portfolio, found that fake bills were raised for providing practical training to students in the course of food production.
Officials, however, found that no laboratory existed in the school for training. Students told the minister that no practical training was ever imparted to them in this subject.
Students studying food production told the minister they had virtually never been given any relevant information about the subject.
"Students told the officials that the course instructor Shaukat Ali had showed them a video on how to make cookies once and asked the students to do the project at home.
"Principal Bishan Lal generated self-attested bills of purchase made for food production course but there was no gas connection for last two years," a senior ACB official said.
During its investigation, the ACB also found that since July 2014, sanitation work of the school was being done by outsourcing agency - RK Jain & Sons hospitality service, which used to send its bills to the office of Rashtrapati Bhawan.
"The agency supervisor told ACB officials that the company had deployed four sanitation workers. The payment for their work was done by the company, which in turn used to send its bills to the Rashtrapati Bhawan office for payment and not to the school," the official said.
According to the ACB, the school's principal made fraudulent claims by showing payment for five sanitation workers, when only one was working in the primary wing.
