Fake certificate racket busted in Vijayawada

SSC ‘certificate’ available for Rs.12,000, Inter Rs.18,000, degree between Rs.35,000 and Rs.40,000 and PG Rs.45,000

Acting on a lead from a sting operation by a TV channel, the Satyanarapuram police in a late night raid on Wednesday on a distant education college in the city busted a fake certificate racket.

Satyanarayanapuram Police Station SHO Prasada Rao said that Md. Basha was running a college by name ‘M.K. Gandhi College of Distance Education’ located opposite Raj Theatre in Gandhinagar for the last two years and was allegedly issuing fake certificates. The incident came to light when Basha accidentally called up the reporter of the channel from a data bank to promote his institution. On enquiry, it was revealed that both the college, and the certificates issued were fake.

Exact replicas

The college was issuing fake certificates for SSC and Intermediate, which exactly resembled the SSC Board and Intermediate Board certificates. And for degree and post graduate courses, the certificates issued replicated the originals from CMJ University, Meghalaya.

Sodisetty Ramesh, who was one of the victims and who filed the first complaint with the police, informed The Hindu that for SSC certificate they were charging Rs.12,000 and for Intermediate the rate was Rs.18,000. For any degree it varied between Rs.35,000 and Rs.40,000 and for PG it was Rs.45,000. “They charged special rate of Rs.50,000 for an MBA certificate,” said Mr. Ramesh.

The SHO said that the entire operation was cleverly disguised. “They issued some study material and even issued hall tickets and conducted examinations to make it look authentic. But the certificates were fake as they were printed on executive bond papers, replicating the original,” he said.