Police say rackets selling fake degrees are offering even domicile certificates

The crackdown

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the city police, on Friday, busted a racket that was involved in issuing fake degree certificates of various Indian universities, and arrested three persons.

Police said the kingpin of the racket, founder chairman of Mahalakshmi Layout-based Shri Venkateshwara Education Trust, was absconding. The arrested persons, Suresh Kadam (27), Harish (26) and Padmini Srinath (39), were later handed over to the Mahalakshmi Layout police.

The arrested persons and G Srinivas Reddy, the kingpin of the racket, hailed from Andhra Pradesh, police said. They were operating from their office located near GD Naidu Hall in Mahalakshmi Layout.

Besides fake certificates, the CCB seized office documents, computer hard disks, fake rubber stamps of various universities and cash worth Rs1.52 lakh from their office.

Modus operandi

The Central Crime Branch said that the accused were selling fake graduation and post-graduation degree certificates to job-hunters for anywhere between Rs5,000 and Rs25,000.

"We found as many as 3,500 such fake certificates belonging to various institutions in their possession. Two institutions offering distance education courses have approved the educational trust they were running. They, however, claimed they had the approval from other institutions as well," DCP (Crime) Siddaramappa, said. Police raided the office based on a tip-off, he added.

Certificates offered

DCP Siddaramappa said that those who bought certificates from the racket sought jobs in Bangalore as well as outside Karnataka.

For some others, these fake certificates could have helped in supplementing their bio-datas to get promotions, he added. The police, however, are yet to trace any of the beneficiaries of the trust.

The trust offered fake certificates in BA, BCom, BBA, MBA, BCA, BTech and MTech degrees, among others. Most fake certificates were of North Indian universities.

More rackets

Police said that the Central Crime Branch has received information on several other rackets that are operating in the city. They also suspect that some of these institutions are distributing fake domicile certificates for securing admissions into professional colleges.

"Using these domicile certificates, students from outside the state can get admitted into higher education courses, claiming they belong to Karnataka," a source said. However, such students, too, have to clear the Common Entrance Test conducted by the Karnataka Examination Authority.

Degrees for sale

It was a well-entrenched racket that doled out fake degree certificates for a fee ranging from Rs5,000 to Rs25,000.

University of Lucknow 87

Choudhary Charansingh

University 151

Chhatrapati Shahuji

Maharaj University 555

Magadh University 25

BundelKhand University 11

University of Technology & Sciences 103

Madhyamik Shiksha Parishat 41

Figures represent the number of fakes seized 

MK Madhusoodan/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication