A school data-entry operator in Bengal’s North Dinajpur allegedly siphoned off Rs 5 crore by hacking into a central website and tampering with a list of minority students selected for post-matriculation scholarships.

Babul Hussain, 28, had broken into the National Informatics Centre’s site to include students who would otherwise be ineligible for the study doles.

He was arrested on Tuesday by a team that included cops from Kerala, where the fraud came to light after some beneficiaries complained that money had stopped flowing into their bank accounts.

Babul is a data entry operator working on contract at a high school in Courtgach, the village in North Dinajpur’s Chopra where he lives with his family.

Police sources said Babul, a farmer’s son, enrolled mostly college students otherwise not eligible for the doles. Under the scheme, students in Classes XI and XII can get up to Rs 10,000 annually if the annual income of their family does not exceed Rs 2 lakh.

“Babul helped minority students whose families earn more than the stipulated limit. He would include their names in return for payments. He had been rigging the list since October 2017,” said a source.

M.S. Jaya, director of education in Kerala, noticed the forgery after some beneficiaries there complained about stopped payments. “In some cases, Babul had deleted the names of genuine beneficiaries and included ineligible persons,” the source said.

Kerala police said Babul had helped siphon off at least Rs 5 crore. On Wednesday, a local court allowed a seven-day remand for Babul to be taken to Thiruvananthapuram.