Rashpal Singh
The fake degree scam involving Jodhpur National University (JNU) has taken panIndia proportions, as the police investigations reveal the racket providing fake marks-sheets was spread across north India, West Bengal and Karnataka.
The Special Operations Group of the police, which is investigating the scam, suspected role of some other educational institutions in the scam, which has roots in Rajasthan.
The suspicions got strengthened on Sunday when the Jaipur police arrested four persons and recovered empty mark-sheets of Bundelkhand University, Jhansi; Eiilam University, Sikkim; Karnataka State Open University and admission letters of JNU.
According to the police, the accused promised to provide B.Ed degrees from JNU to some persons in lieu of Rs. 75,000 per degree. The police held them from a hotel after getting a tipoff.
Alleged kingpin of the racket, Kamal Mehta, chairperson of JNU, is in the custody of SOG. The investigators claim that prima facie it has come to fore that JNU issued about 38,000 fake mark-sheets, which were handed over to candidates in all northern states and some of the states in eastern and southern India. The university is yet to allot degrees to these candidates.
“Rajasthan is the hub of this racket. There are clues that agents of the racket are spread across north India, West Bengal and Karnataka,” said BL Meena, deputy inspector general of police, SOG.
The officer said that so far the focus of investigations is to collect evidence in distribution of fake mark-sheets and role of other educational institutions would be probed later.
The SOG had arrested Mehta from Delhi on January 8 on charges of providing fake marksheets from his university.
Source: hindustantimes
