How an insider from University of Pune could be involved in the fake degree scam

Sandip Kolhatkar

After it was revealed during the internal probe that the degree certificates, marksheets and bonafide certificates received from South east and Middle east countries for verification purpose were fake, the committee members who had directed the varsity to lodge a police complaint, has recommended that henceforth, the varsity should maintain database of such cases and each and every correspondence related to degrees verification from other countries should be well documented.

A few months ago, the University of Pune, had received more than 100 degree certificates, marksheets and bona fide certificates from consulates of Singapore and Iran of some candidates from India, who had applied for jobs in various firms in these countries. During the scrutiny, it was revealed that some of the documents were blatantly forged by candidates seeking jobs in these South East and Middle East countries and it prompted varsity to set up an inquiry under Professor Sudhakar Jadhavar, who is also the dean of Commerce faculty.

During the inquiry, Dr Jadhavar pointed out more than 100 such documents which were fake and suspected that there is an interstate gang, which is hand in glove with someone from varsity, that could be behind this racket and suggested a police inquiry.

“Though the varsity, as per the my directions, filed a case with Chatushringi police station, the internal system of the varsity needs strengthening as its need that each and every verification of such degrees from all over the world needs to be documented and a data base of fake degrees should be created,” he suggested.

Not the first time

He said that it is not the first time that the such case has been detected as there were several cases in past, however, every time the verification desk of the varsity used to receive any fake certificate, they only sent a remark as fake, however no action was taken.

He said that few years ago, one case in which it was revealed that the certificates were fake, it was reported to the cops, and however nothing happened further.

In the present case, it has been seen that the fraudsters have used signatures of former VCs and registrars to forge the certificates and it went back to even Narendra Jadhav and Sanjay Chahande, who were the vice chancellors of the varsity.

Produced several others

“The fraudsters did it so blatantly that they just took one original degree and went on producing several others with the use of Desktop Publication (DTP) by replacing the names and keeping other information like marks, permanent registration number, degree number and the signature of registrar,” he said.

He added that the verification of the all the certificates should be done online as the firms who are based abroad can access the portal and get the degrees verified.

The cops said that they are still verifying the documents and waiting for the original degrees which were submitted by the candidates at the time of applying for jobs in these countries. Varsity is yet to get the original documents from these countries’ consulates as they have made a request to them after the internal probe revealed the degrees were fake.

Jobs abroad might establish a link

One of the cops from the Chatushringi police station said that if they get information of some candidates who had applied for jobs abroad, they would be able to establish the link to reach these fraudsters.
Cops said that majority of the names of the candidates whose degrees had come for verification sound north Indian as the names of these people are mostly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

Source: dnaindia