Inter-state fake degree racket busted, 2 held

The Jalandhar Police Commissionerate has busted an inter-state racket involved in the production and distribution of fake degrees.

Led by Commissioner of Police Swapan Sharma, the operation resulted in the arrest of two suspects and the seizure of 196 counterfeit degrees, along with stamps, passports and equipment used in the forgery.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Pushkar Goel, a resident of Green Park, Jalandhar, originally from Kapurthala, and Varinder Kumar from Mota Singh Nagar here.

DCP, Headquarters, Aditya, during a press conference, said acting on a tip-off about the gang’s operations in the city, the police raided multiple locations and seized a large cache of materials, including 53 stamps, 16 passports, six laptops, three printers, a stamp-making machine and eight mobile phones.

He said the fake degrees recovered from the accused spanned various disciplines, including engineering, medical and management fields.

“These were allegedly sold to students and professionals across several states, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. We are now investigating who purchased these degrees and the extent of the gang’s operations, including the involvement of any educational institutions and middlemen”, he added.

He further said the seized materials had been sent to forensic teams for further analysis to determine the scale of the forgery and track down other involved parties. “We suspect the gang operated a sophisticated network, selling fake degrees to individuals seeking to bypass legitimate academic qualifications”, Aditya said.

An FIR has been lodged at Police Station Sadar, Jalandhar, under various sections of the BNS. He emphasised that this is a serious case with far-reaching consequences and they are delving into the modus operandi of the gang, including how the degrees were fabricated and distributed. He also confirmed that two cases are already pending against the prime accused Pushkar Goel while further arrests are likely as the probe deepens.