Certificate racket busted

Mangalore police have busted a fake degree certificate racket by arresting two people who were allegedly selling fake certificates and marks cards of over 20 universities.

The arrested are Avinash Shetty (31), a MBA graduate from Surathkal in Mangalore and Mohammed Shaheed, a school dropout from Kannur in Kerala.

Mangalore Police Commissioner Manish Karbikar told reporters that the two were arrested following a complaint from a student who suspected the authenticity of the certificate they had given him.

Karbikar said the two were selling degree certificates of institutes such as: Dr B R Ambedkar University, Agra, Chattisgarh University, Dr C V Raman University, Bilaspur, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Central Board Open School Education, Meerut, Vinayaka Mission University (Tamil Nadu), STED Council, Trivandrum, EIILM University (Uttar Pradesh), CMJ University (Uttar Pradesh) and Karnataka State Secondary Education Board, Bangalore, among others.

The two were charging Rs 40,000 for a three-year diploma, Rs 45,000 for a three-year degree, Rs 60,000 for BTech, Rs 75,000 for BCom/BSc, Rs 80,000 for BBM, BBA and BCA, Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,20,000 for MBA and Rs 90,000 for other post-graduate courses.

They created fake certificates by downloading certificate formats from the websites of the respective universities, or by scanning the original marks cards. “There is hardly any difference between the originals and fakes they created,” said Central Crime Branch Inspector Venkatesh Prasanna, who busted the racket.

The accused were running two offices in Mangalore, for the 1ast ten years — at Dream Career at City Arcade in Bendoorwell and Navbharath Education Research Foundation at Krishna Complex on M G Road. Police seized over 50 fake degree certificates, marks cards, migration certificates and laptops, computers, colour digital printers, credit cards, ID cards, rubber stamps, photos of degree aspirants.

The police suspect the involvement of several other individuals from Kerala.