A police team from Malda’s Harishchandrapur police station arrested a youth from Islampur in North Dinajpur on Wednesday for his alleged role in the Taruner Swapna grant scam.

The police recovered incriminating material, 95 SIM cards, 65 ATM cards, pen drives, two cellphones and a laptop from 21-year-old Md Mobarak Hossain.

The Mamata Banerjee government gives a one-time grant of ₹10,000 to higher secondary students of state-run and state-aided schools to buy tablets or smartphones for digital learning.

Sources said that recently it was found that 35 students of Kanua Bhabanipur High School in Harishchandrapur didn’t receive the state grant.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the money meant for them was transferred to other bank accounts. Initially, students and their guardians confronted headmaster Raja Choudhury, who tried to pass the buck to the school clerk.

Then, the police started their investigation and zeroed in on Hossain.

“The police traced the altered bank account numbers and found Mobarak Hossain’s role in it. After the arrest, the youth admitted that he was a member of the racket that had hacked into the state education department website and changed bank account numbers,” said a source, adding that investigations were on.