Director of education, principal held in recruitment of bogus teachers case | Mumbai news

NAGPUR: Following the suspension of senior superintendent Nilesh Waghmare by the School Education Department on April 9, Nagpur police on Friday night arrested Ulhas Narad, 54, deputy director of education (Gadchiroli), and Parag Nanaji Pudke, 33, a school principal in connection with the recruitment of ‘580 bogus teachers’, which cost the state exchequer over ₹100 crore.

The investigation is now set to gather momentum as the state government has recommended the formation of Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe how 580 fake teachers and non-teaching staff managed to receive monthly salaries—ranging between ₹40,000 and ₹80,000—since 2019, by uploading fabricated identities onto Shalarth, the state’s centralised web-based payroll system.

Preliminary findings suggest that at least four officers were involved in generating fake credentials without any verification, leading to large-scale salary disbursements over several years.

Sources in the education department say that many aided schools, particularly in rural areas, may have taken advantage of systemic loopholes—raising fears that the scam could be more widespread than initially suspected. “More arrests of school heads and staff are likely in the coming days,” said an official involved in the probe. The state government has directed the Education Commissioner to conduct district-wide audits of aided schools to uncover similar irregularities. A review process has already commenced in select districts.

Investigators are also exploring the possibility of collusion between insiders in the education department and private school managements to embezzle government funds. “We are treating this as a systemic failure, not an isolated incident,” the official added.