With the arrest of six men, police have unearthed a fake school education board that ran an elaborate pan-India network since 2012 and duped more than 20,000 people by issuing forged marksheets and certificates, police said today.
The gang ran a website and gave out advertisements, including of employee vacancies, to establish the credibility of the fake board and set up various regional offices from remote localities. They used to charge Rs 10,000 to 50,000 from private schools for giving affiliation, said an officer.
The arrested accused told the police that in 2012 alone, more than 5,000 candidates were given such fake marksheets. These candidates procured Indian passports from Regional Passport Office, Lucknow and got jobs overseas on the basis of these fake marksheets.
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They also claimed that several such persons are employed in various government departments such as UP Police, Railways, Post Office, Army and paramilitary forces etc. Police are probing these claims.
The network of this gang is spread all over India and the possibility of connivance of officials of education department and other government departments cannot be ruled out, the police said.
On September 11, the police received a complaint about someone being issue a marksheet issued by 'Board of Higher Secondary Education Delhi'.
After police got the marksheet verified from the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Delhi Government's Education Department, it was found that the "Board of Higher Secondary Education Delhi" is a fake board, said Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police (Eastern Range).
He added that the marksheet issued by the board was also fake.
A police team led by Nupur Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara), was formed to nab the accused.
During investigation, it was found that Parshant Solanki (22) had given the fake marksheet to the complainant. He was arrested from Wazirabad Road, Gokalpuri here in September.
Over the span of next few months, other persons involved in the racket were arrested.
Solanki told the police that he was working as a computer operator and used to get all the fake marksheets from one Baljeet Singh (24).
Subsequently, Singh was arrested from Burari, Delhi. He had designated as the director of the "Board" in place of one Mange Ram Acharya alias Manish Pratap Singh.
Acharya was the original mastermind of the racket of con-boards and is currently in jail in Rajasthan.
Singh revealed that he got the fake marksheet prepared from the office of Board of Higher Secondary Education located in Vikaspuri.
A raid was conducted at the office and three accused Altaf Raja (22), Ramdev Sharma (65) and Lakhshya Rathore alias Amit (26) were arrested.
The three arrested persons said that they are employees of the "Board" and were assigned different jobs as per requirement and convenience.
Sharma, who was arrested, revealed that one Shiv Prasad Pandey (65) is the chairman of the "Board" and operates from Lucknow, said the officer.
Subsequently, Pandey was arrested from Lucknow yesterday.
It was revealed that the gang members used to issue advertisements in local news papers and vernacular press informing candidates about providing certificates of 10 and 10+2 if they have flunked their class VIII exams.
In the advertisements, they would claim that private schools are affiliated to the board.
They also advertised vacancies for the board staff.
A website had been developed with the URL address (http://bhsedelhiboard.net)
As per information available on its website, the Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi claimed that 250-300 schools are affiliated to it.
Pandey was looking after the northern part of India -- Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
On demand, the "Board" prepared marksheets and certificates within an hour. The members of the gang used to publish advertisements in newspapers and offer rate for affiliation with the board.
For schools till Class 5, they would charge Rs 10,000. For schools till Class VI and VIII, they woud charge an amount of Rs 21,000 and for schools till Class XII, they would charge Rs 51,000, he said.
The amount would be anywhere between a lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh for schools belonging to Punjab, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Pandey would also charge Rs 1,500 for the application form per candidate and would provide model question papers and study material to the candidates, said the officer.
The money earned at different offices was deposited in different bank accounts by the respective associates.
The certificates issued by the "Board" (for Class X and XII) were sent to it for verification by the agencies where they were submitted by the candidates. The board used to verify them and the fraud went undetected.
Police seized more than 17,000 fake blank as well as forged marksheets, certificates, degrees, migration certificates, admit cards, of universities like Sunrise University, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur, etc.
Fifty-five rubber stamps of various fake boards and schools were also seized.
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