Fake degree racket busted in Mohali; three arrested

Tribune News Service

Mohali, June 18

The police today claimed to have unearthed a fake degree/certificate racket with the arrest of three persons here.

The suspects, identified as Raj Kumar from Dabwali Kalan (Fazilka), Sanjay Kumar, alias Sonu, and Chander Kumar, both from Zirakpur, prepared fake certificates and degrees and charged their clients between Rs 2,500 and Rs 10,000.

“The case is quite serious as the suspects have confessed that they had sold at least 400 fake degrees or certificates to aspirants for the upcoming Punjab Police recruitment,” said Mohali SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar.

The police have recovered more than 1,500 fake certificates and degrees, three laptops, a computer, a scanner, a number of fake stamps of various educational institutions and Rs 90,000 from their possession.

Bhullar said the racket had been unearthed by his team, led by inspector Mahesh Kumar Saini, Mataur SHO, following a tip-off.

“Raj Kumar, who was residing in Phase VII here, was running the racket from a house in the same area. The suspects targeted students who had failed in various exams from Class XII to the graduation level. After identifying their targets through the result sheets, they made calls to them and offered fake certificates or degrees with inflated marks. The suspects also prepared fake certificates and degrees of various professional courses,” said the SSP.

During interrogation, one of the suspects confessed that a few students, whom they had provided with fake certificates of Class XII, were selected in a Punjab Police recruitment four years ago.

Bhullar said the suspects had also duped some persons by giving them fake appointment letters of the Railways and the FCI. “They took their victims to Delhi and abandoned them at Shakur Basti,” said the SSP.

So far, the police have recovered fake certificates and degrees of at least 10 universities and boards from the suspects. These included Panjab University, Chandigarh; Manav Bharti University, Himachal Pradesh; Munad University, Delhi; Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (UP); Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi; CBSE, Delhi; Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi; The Council of Basic and Technical Education, Delhi; Punjab School Education Board, Mohali; Council of Secondary Education, Mohali; and Board of Secondary Education Madhya Bharat, Gwalior.

Bhullar said more arrests were likely in the case. A case under sections 420, 465, 467, 471 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against the suspects at the Mataur police station.