ED attaches Rs 5.80 crore properties in Manav Bharti varsity fake degree case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Shimla, has provisionally attached seven immovable properties worth Rs 5.80 crore located in Haryana, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, which belong to accused Ashoni Kanwar, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in a fake degree scam case involving Manav Bharti University, Solan.

According to the ED’s social media post, the total value of attached properties in the case stands at approximately Rs 200 crore.

The ED had filed a chargesheet in January 2023 under provisions of the PMLA against Manav Bharti University and its promoters following a probe into the sale of fake degrees.

In all, 16 entities were named in the chargesheet, including the university and its promoter Raj Kumar Rana.

The ED had alleged that suspect Raj Kumar Rana with the help of other co-suspects sold fake degrees of Manav Bharti University, Solan, in lieu of money. Funds obtained from this illegal activity were used by Rana to acquire movable and immovable assets across states in his own name and in the name of his family members and various entities.

The ED case is based on three FIRs registered against the suspects, who are involved in a fake degree scam, in the state. Earlier, the agency had attached assets worth Rs 194 crore under the PMLA in connection with the case.

A Special Investigation Team probing the case had found that fake degrees were sold by the university in 13 states, including Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, for amount ranging between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, based on the significance of the course as well as its duration. Degrees pertaining to courses that the university did not offer were also sold by the suspects.

In 2015, a fact-finding committee had pointed out that 26,770 printed degrees without security features were lying unutilised on the campus of Manav Bharti University. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had flagged the issue of fake degrees being sold by the university in August 2019. The UGC had received a complaint as per which the university had sold five lakh fake degrees since its inception.