Aditya Dev
A huge cache of fake mark sheets and college degrees were seized from the house of a former principal of a college affiliated to the B R Ambedkar University by police on Friday. This is among the biggest recoveries of such documents since cops launched a crackdown on the organized counterfeit documents racket earlier this year.
The cyber crime unit of Agra police also impounded duplicate stamps generally used by the university registrar and chief medical officer.
The crime unit also recovered four laptops, two hard disks and a bunch of CDs during a raid at the house of Manoj Tiwari, who served as principal of Shanti Devi College in Mainpuri till 2007.
Police believe the stamps were used by the accused to authenticate the degree certificates. They also confirmed that the seized hard disks contained sensitive data related to the university. They are, however, yet to ascertain the kingpin of the racket.A senior official of the cyber crime branch said the police had registered an FIR against the former principal and his eight associates, who they believe were part of the fake marksheet racket. He also suggested that the materials impounded depicted a “well-organized gang” behind the recent scam that thrives on selling fake degrees at a premium cost.
The official also said Tiwari’s aide Yogesh Gautam had been nabbed. However, the main accused is absconding.
According to police, the gang has been on their radar for a while now, and the latest raid was the outcome of information received from people who had been nabbed earlier. Recently, police had arrested one Brahamjeet for hoarding several marksheets in his house in Khedia More.
They also conducted a surprise raid on Praveen Kumar’s house. Kumar was working as a clerk in the B R Ambedkar University office in Agra. They found photocopies of mark sheets of every student enrolled in various affiliated colleges since 2008. Later, acting on tip-offs, the police conducted several surprise checks in Shikohabad and Sirsagnaj, which eventually led them to Tiwari’s house.
Source: indiatimes
