If you fake it, cops will break it

CCB busts fake marks card racket; 5 held

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: As part of an investigation into a racket that sold fake educational certificates, the Bengaluru CCB arrested five people alleged to have issued fake degree certificates to over 1,000 people across the country.

The police said that the accused were operating Sri Venkateshwara International Education Society in the city offering various correspondence and distance graduation courses. Coming across their website, a resident of Mahalakshmipuram fell into their trap and lost Rs 40,000 in the hopes of getting a degree certificate.

Sources from police said that the complainant had approached the office in Mahalakshmipuram on November 2 and had inquired about getting a Bcom certificate. He alleged that he was told by a staff member that he would need to pay Rs 1 lakh to get a certificate from a prestigious university.

However, after the complainant had paid Rs 40,000 in advance, the staff told him that there is no need for him to appear for a re-exam as they will make someone else write it. Later the complainant turned suspicious and approached the cyber police.

Taking up the complaint, the police procured a search warrant, and a team of CCB personnel raided three offices belonging to Sri Venkateshwara International Education Society near Mahalakshmi Layout, Marathahalli and Kodigehalli area of the city. After 12 hours of intense searching, the police recovered 1097 documents belonging to various candidates.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Bengaluru Police Commissioner CH Pratap Reddy said that the prime accused was identified as Srinivas Reddy. “The gang had been creating forged certificates of prestigious universities and would sell them at prices anywhere between Rs 50,000 to one lakh,” he said.

“Fake certificates were issued for Masters and PhD degrees from various renowned institutions across India, for Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh,” he added. Around 228 fake certificates from Dr. CV Raman University, 128 from the National Institute of Andhra Pradesh, 147 from the North East Frontier Technical University of Arunachal Pradesh, 25 from Calorx Teachers’ University of Gujarat, four from Swamy Vivekananda Global University of West Bengal, six from the Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management University of Sikkim, 13 from VS Prasanna Bharati University of Haryana, and various others have been seized during the CCB raids. The accused is currently being questioned. Search is on to arrest more,” the top cop added