Fake degree racket busted, 5 held

The Delhi Police Crime Branch busted a large-scale fake degree racket and arrested five persons involved in manufacturing and distributing forged academic documents across the country, an official said.

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The police seized a trove of counterfeit degrees and mark sheets from several universities, along with digital files.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Devesh Chandra Srivastva said the gang was operating through coaching centres and education consultancies across Delhi-NCR, luring students with promises of backdated degrees after collecting hefty sums from them.

During raids conducted at multiple locations, the police recovered 228 forged mark sheets, 27 fake degree certificates and 20 fake migration certificates. Additionally, 20 mobile phones and six laptops were confiscated, containing over 5,000 soft copies of fabricated academic records, including degrees in BA, BSc, BCom, BTech, BAMS, BEd, MBA and MA, he added.

The investigation began after the police received a tip-off about a network of education centres offering fake degrees. Acting swiftly, the Crime Branch arrested the alleged mastermind, Vicky Harjani, from Netaji Subhash Place. He was found with 75 forged documents from universities in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Tamil Nadu. Harjani, a Class X dropout, ran an outfit called Paramhans Vidyapeeth with offices in NSP and Rohini.

His interrogation led the police to four other operatives — Vivek Gupta, Satbir Singh, Narayan Jee and Avnish Kansal. They ran centres producing forged degrees across various states.

Gupta, a repeat offender with pending cases in Himachal Pradesh, operated six to seven centres in Noida. Satbir Singh managed Gurukul Education Centre in Faridabad, while Narayan Jee, a graduate, was active in Bihar but had expanded operations to Delhi-NCR. Avnish Kansal, a BTech graduate currently jailed in Jaipur, was already facing similar fraud charges in Rajasthan.

The racket mainly targeted students who were either dropouts or seeking shortcuts to land jobs or gain admission for higher studies. After collecting personal details from clients, the gang would generate forged documents that closely resembled genuine degrees issued by reputed universities. The prices varied depending on the course, urgency and the university being mimicked.

According to the police, the accused promoted their services through social media, local print ads and handbills distributed near educational institutions and coaching hubs.

Officials suspect the involvement of insiders in certain universities who may have helped replicate document formats and provided sensitive institutional details. The police are now investigating the wider network and verifying if any officials colluded with the gang. The racket is believed to be a part of a broader network with over 20-25 centres across states and may have affected the authenticity of hundreds of job and academic credentials nationwide.

Further investigation is underway and more arrests are likely in the coming days.