In a shocking revelation police have busted a racket offering fake degrees to youths. The fraud came to light after someone lodged a complaint with Thane police. The Crime Branch of Thane police, which was probing a case of fake pharmacy certificates involving a Thane-based institute, came across the bogus certificates issued by the Nagpur institute and initiated a separate investigation into it
A team of Thane cops after investigation found that the degrees and certificates issued by the institute were fake and were not having any accreditation or affiliation from recognised board or university.
A team of Thane police then reached Nagpur and busted the fake degree racket allegedly being operated by a Nagpur-based management and engineering institute. Police have booked the founder-director and other staff members of the institute.
According to police, an institute named Indian Institute of Management and Engineering was offering bogus degrees to students and others in lieu of money.
The founder-director of the institute identified as Nayeem, its manager Pallavi Chavan and some other staff members have been booked in this connection, police said.
Interestingly, the institute was operational in the city for the last many years. It has provided fake degrees and certificates to several hundreds of students. The students used to get the mark sheets and degree certificates as per their requirements. “The institute has been in operation since years. It would give fake degree certificates to students and others in lieu of money. It would issue certificates of BBA (bachelor of business administration), MBA in production management, diploma in mechanical engineering and BTech, and other degrees,” a police official said.
Police have booked the accused under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged document), Narkar said, adding that nobody has been arrested so far.
According to police, fake certificates would enable the beneficiaries to get jobs in private as well as public sector.
