Times of India: Gurgaon: Friday, June 01, 2018.
District
sports officer (DSO) of Gurugram Paras Ram has been booked for allegedly
misusing his official position and availing sports scholarships for his two
sons by submitting false documents.
The DSO has
been accused of taking scholarships worth Rs 75,000 in the name of his sons in
2011 when he was working as gymnast coach. He was promoted to the post of DSO
in 2012.
An RTI query
about scholarships given to Ram’s children was filed in 2014 after which he
returned the amount, saying he was unaware of the rules. However, the complaint
alleged that it was unlikely that someone working with the department was
unaware about the norms of the government scheme.
According to
the complaint, the scholarship scheme is only for scheduled castes (SC)
students whose family income is not more than Rs 2 lakh per annum but Ram
misused his official position to avail the scholarship for his sons. As per
norms, the father of a student applying for the scholarship has to submit an affidavit,
claiming his earning is not more than Rs 2 lakh a year. Ram gave false
affidavits and retuned the money only when the RTI query was filed, said the
complaint.
When TOI
contacted the DSO, he said the case was a conspiracy against him. “My children
applied for scholarships which were approved by two committees, one in Gurugram
and the other in Chandigarh. The norms were changed later. When I came to know
about the changes, I returned the money,” said Ram, adding that he never
misused his official position and he was not DSO when his children were given
the scholarships.
Ram said some
people were eyeing his chair and conspiring against him. “They filed an RTI
query under a false name and levelled baseless allegations. Nothing has been
proved,” he said.
An FIR was
filed against the DSO under sections 177 (wilful misinformation), 181 (false
statement on oath), 200 (whoever corruptly uses or attempts to use as true any
such declaration, knowing the same to be false in any material point), 420
(cheating) of IPC at the Gurugram city police station. Sub-inspector Rohtash
Singh said, “We are investigating the case.”
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