Guwahati, Nov 17 (IANS): The CID in Assam has so far arrested 26 people from four Assam districts for reported embezzlement of pre-matric scholarship funds for minority students worth about Rs 10 crore for the past two financial years, officials said on Monday.

A senior police officer said that officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday arrested Robiul Islam from Goalpara district. Islam is believed to be the mastermind of the misappropriation of funds and was involved with a large number of schools in submitting fraudulent applications for scholarships and withdrawal of scholarship funds.

Of the 26 accused, there are four headmasters, a teacher, three owners of Customer Service Point (CSP) of nationalised banks, president of a school management committee, two electronic data processors and 10 middlemen.

They have been arrested over the past one week for allegedly misappropriating pre-matric scholarship funds for poor minority students worth about Rs 10 crore.

According to the police officer, CID teams are conducting raids in different districts to arrest the remaining accused in the siphoning off of the scholarship funds.

The CID sleuths have so far seized three laptops, 217 students' photographs, 104 students' certificates, 173 pre-matric scholarship forms and 11 bank passbooks.

The pre-matric scholarship for the students belonging to the minority community is a central scheme sponsored and implemented by the Uniion Ministry of Minority Affairs for students who secure 50 per cent marks in the previous examinations and whose parents' annual income does not exceed Rs one lakh.