Gurdaspur police unearth fake sports certificate scam
Ravi Dhaliwal
Gurdaspur, June 15
The Gurdaspur police, after weeks of extensive planning, finally trapped a local resident who prepared fake sports certificates, on the basis of which scores of youngsters have got jobs in various government departments and defence forces.
SSP Harjit Singh, who led the special team, said all these jobs were now under the police scanner. “We have rushed a team to Patiala Cantonment, where two youngsters have got jobs on the basis of these bogus documents. As a conservative estimate, more than 100 youngsters have been conned,” he maintained.
Based on these ‘certificates’, many people have got employment in the Army, CRPF, ITPB, SSB, BSF and the CISF.
As many as 45 fake certificates, one printer, one laptop, eight stamps of recognised national sports federations and 400 holograms were recovered today by the police after they conducted an early morning raid. The mastermind, Davinder Singh, has been arrested and a case under various sections of the IPC has been registered against him at the city police station.
Investigators said he ran a well-oiled network with links in several states.
The SSP said teams had been dispatched to these states to apprehend Davinder’s accomplices. “We have identified some of his key team members and have nominated them in the FIR,” said the SSP.
The accused, apart from getting counterfeit certificates printed from a renowned printing press of the city, used to hold ‘state’ and ‘national’-level tournaments. “He befooled rural youth by claiming that these tournaments had the sanctity of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the national sports federations. Village folk seldom know the difference between an IOA-sponsored tournament and a dubious championship. They used to fall into his trap and doled out money for participating in these tournaments. Youngsters were told that once they took part in these, they would get a certificate which would help them get decent jobs anywhere in the country,” said the SSP.
He would also tell village youth that they could get admissions in professional engineering and medical colleges based on his ‘documents’.
District Sports Officer Sukhchain Singh said players used to come to him carrying these documents. “I knew they were bogus. Hence, I refused to verify them,” he said.
Mastermind held
- As many as 45 fake certificates, a printer, a laptop, eight stamps of recognised national sports federations and 400 holograms were recovered on Wednesday
- During an early morning raid, the cops arrested mastermind Davinder Singh. Officials said he ran a network in several states
