Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered an investigation into alleged corruption in a free coaching scheme for underprivileged students that was started by the former Aam Aadmi Party government, Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood, said on Wednesday.

The move came after Chief Minister Rekha Gupta recommended a probe and posted on X, “Allegations of major financial irregularities have emerged in the 'Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana' during 2020 to 2021.”

Gupta alleged that although the scheme had a sanctioned budget of ₹15 crore, the Arvind Kejriwal government approved bills worth over ₹145 crore.

The scheme was launched in 2018 to offer free coaching for competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, NEET, and CLAT to students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, EWS and minority communities through private institutes. The scheme was stopped after a new government took charge in February this year.

Responding to the allegations, the Aam Aadmi Party called the ACB inquiry an act of “vendetta politics.”

At a press conference, Ashish Sood, along with SC and ST Welfare Minister Ravinder Indraj claimed that in 2021 to 2022, private coaching centres raised bills amounting to ₹145 crore even though documentation was lacking and the list of students was not verified properly.

“Shockingly, the AAP government did not even ask for a list of students from these institutes before processing the bills,” Sood said, and added that once the BJP government took over, the coaching institutes were asked to submit the student list, and they received data of 13,000 students.

However, he said official verification showed that only around 3,000 students had actually received coaching through the scheme.

“There was such corruption by the previous AAP government that even Dr Ambedkar’s soul would be pained,” the minister said.

Indraj stated that the matter is already under judicial review and that the initial government investigation showed that nearly 35 coaching centres could not give verified data for even 100 students.

He further alleged that during the COVID pandemic, when lakhs of families were under financial stress, leaders from the former government allegedly teamed up with what he called “coaching mafias” to carry out this scam.

Sood said the scheme had originally targeted coaching for 4,900 students in 2018 and 2,071 in 2019. But from July 2021 to August 2022, bills worth ₹145 crore were submitted. “Surprisingly, instead of verifying the bills, the AAP government later took the coaching institutes to court over the payments,” he said.

Sood added, “The average coaching cost is ₹1 lakh for IAS, ₹50,000 for MBA or CLAT, ₹30,000 for SSC or LIC, ₹25,000 for Group C exams and ₹10,000 for interview preparation.” He said, “Even if we consider that all 3,000 verified students took IAS coaching, the maximum cost would be around ₹30 crore. How did it become ₹145 crore?”

In her post, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the Aam Aadmi Party would be held accountable for every rupee spent.

“Their politics has always been a show in the name of Dalits. But when it came to responsibility, they did not hesitate to rob them of their rights. Now their real face will be exposed,” she said.

The Aam Aadmi Party released a statement accusing the BJP of shutting down working models in education, healthcare and electricity while engaging in political revenge. “Check every brick in Delhi’s schools, every needle in our Mohalla Clinics … But after you are done with your witch hunt, start doing some real work,” the party said while urging the BJP to respect the people’s mandate and focus on governance.

The party also claimed that under BJP rule, civic problems such as power outages, sewage issues and rising fees in private schools had increased.

“Six months have gone by, and not a single step has been taken to address the issues of ordinary citizens,” the statement said. The AAP pointed out that the BJP had still not fulfilled its promise of giving ₹2,500 per month.

“They have turned 'Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makaan' into 'Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Maidaan',” the party said.