FIR against retired deputy director of education, 18 others for Rs 1.25 cr Shalarth ID scam

Navi Mumbai: Acting on a police complaint lodged by the Vashi divisional chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), Mumbai Divisional Board, an FIR for cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust was registered at the Vashi police station on Wednesday against the retired deputy director of the education department, identified as Nitin Upasani, for colluding with 18 people from two educational institutions in Alibaug and Khopoli to prepare Shalarth IDs using forged documents to recruit teachers and enable them to draw monthly salary grants.Upasani was named in the FIR after the complainant, Rajendra Ahire, claimed that scrutiny of official documents at the Vashi divisional office related to the Shalarth ID scam found that all 19 accused were involved in the offence from Aug 2018. This occurred during the tenure of Upasani, when he was the Vashi divisional chairman of MSBSHSE, due to which the teachers recruited using forged documents were able to draw monthly govt salary grants, thus allegedly embezzling around Rs 1.25 crore, said Shashikant Chandekar, senior inspector of Vashi police station.
In Maharashtra, Shalarth IDs are issued to teachers of govt and aided schools to maintain service records and process salary payments.As per the FIR, the complainant, Ahire, stated that an accused, Shekhar Kulkarni, illegally obtained a Shalarth ID for his wife, Gayatri Kulkarni, attached to Sakharam Vaman Joshi High School at Saraswat Colony in Dombivli, Thane district, and that Upasani colluded in preparing the Shalarth ID for her using forged documents.The 18 other accused named in the FIR include present and former principals, teachers and officials of the educational institutions Janata Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, Alibag, and Khopoli Taluka Shikshan Prasarak Mandal.The accused from the Janata Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, Alibag, are secretary Milind Patil, former principal Anil Patil, current principal Sonali Patil, assistant teachers Mayuri Patil, Jayesh Patil, Swapnil Raut and Vaibhav Gosavi. From Khopoli Taluka Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, they are supervisor Kishore Patil, principal N B Pawar and other staff identified as N Ramaswamy, D P Haridas, N B Khanvilkar, P G Patil, current principal D P Gaikwad, assistant teacher Prachi Nalawade, director Dinesh Gurav, Shekhar Kulkarni and his spouse, Gayatri Kulkarni.There are also other unidentified accused in the case.In Dec last year, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Nashik city police arrested Upasani in connection with the Shalarth ID fraud case. Upasani was accused of colluding with the management of educational institutes operating govt-aided schools in Jalgaon, Chalisgaon and Dhule to prepare Shalarth IDs of people to show them as recruited teachers.Ramdas Shelke, police inspector of Nashik city police station, said, "After arresting the accused, Nitin Upasani, he was in police custody for 10 days, after which he was released on bail by the Nashik JMFC court. However, the Nashik rural police obtained his police custody remand for a similar FIR against him, and since then he is in jail custody at Nashik Central Prison."