Four men were arrested for their alleged involvement in an organised racket that specialised in giving admissions in prominent city schools at exorbitant prices, the Crime Branch said on Tuesday.
Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), said as many as 250 admissions across Delhi schools, which were obtained on the basis of fake economically weaker section (EWS) certificates among other forged documents and priced between Rs. 3 and Rs. 10 lakh, had come to light so far.
While many such modules were found to be active in Delhi, according to Mr. Yadav, a home tutor, who was the brains behind one such racket, and three of his agents, identified as Anil Kumar, Sudama Singh and Dharam Singh, were arrested.
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“Mukesh Sharma, who holds a M.Sc. degree in zoology and used to give home tuitions, decided to exploit the EWS quota to his advantage. He developed contacts within a particular school’s administration, procured fake EWS certificates in addition to voter Ids, and charged between Rs. 3 and Rs. 5 lakh per admission depending on the profile of the family,” Mr. Yadav said.
The Crime Branch claimed schools where fake EWS certificates were found to have been used to procure admissions included the Delhi Public School’s Rohini, Vasant Kunj, RK Puram and Mathura Road branches, Modern School on Humayun Road, Lancer’s Convent, Ryan International School, Montfort School, Ashok Vihar, GD Goenka School, Rohini, Vikas Bharti School, Rohini, Bal Bharti School, Pitampura, and Heritage School, Rohini, among others. Mr. Yadav said information about the racket was received a few months ago.
“The verification process revealed that many of the EWS certificates used were fake and forged. Multiple admissions apparently took place in different schools on the basis of the same certificates with the names of the students getting changed later,” said Mr. Yadav.
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According to Mr. Yadav, Anil was the first to be arrested followed by Sudama, Dharam and finally Mukesh.
The verification of EWS certificates used for admissions in many other schools is still under process.
Mr. Yadav said further investigation on the possible connivance of members of the school administration was being probed.