Patna, Feb. 9: BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today hinted at a stipend scam worth crores over the years, saying most institutes and names of students taking admission under the scheme were fake.

Sushil said around 404 students from Bihar took admission into Raja Ramchandra Institute of Technology and Management, Chandaus, Dulari Devi Institute of Pharmacy, Chandaus and NCR Technical Campus, Chandaus, under SC/ST welfare department's stipend scheme in 2012-13. Chandaus is around 20 km from Aligarh. But, he said, none of the colleges exist physically and instead of the three colleges, one Saheed Narendra Ayurvedic Medical College has come up in the area.

"All three colleges have the same telephone number in their letterhead," Sushil said. "Dulari Devi Institute and Raja Ramchandra Institute have the same campus address. NCR Technical's address was not mentioned in the letter pad."

When The Telegraph called up the cellphone number (08755877858) on the letterhead of Dulari Devi Institute of Pharmacy, an official said he was talking from Saheed Narendra Ayurvedic Medical College, Chandaus. He feigned ignorance on why the number was there on the other letterhead.

SC/ST welfare department minister Santosh Kumar Nirala and department secretary S.M. Raju did not take calls.

Last week, Sushil had said addresses of 60 Dalit students from Nawada shown as admitted into 12 engineering institutes were fake. Even the institutes were fake. But about Rs 1,03,27,000 was paid to these institutions in 2015.