Blank degree certificates found on road

Chethan Kumar

Around 9.45am Monday near Ganganagar Market, about half a kilometre from the Central Bureau of Investigation office on Bellary Road, S Kumar stepped on a set of papers outside a cigarette shop.

When he took a close at them, he decided to call TOI. The documents were blank Bachelor of Engineering degree certificates of the University of Mysore.

The certificates, seven of which are with TOI, can pass off as originals. Interestingly, UoM hasn’t been offering engineering degrees since 1998. Since April 1, 1998, all engineering degrees in the state are given by Visvesvaraya Technical University (VTU).

Experts have expressed concern over such fake certificates being prepared for UoM’s courses. “It looks like an original. Forging a signature is the last step of formalizing the certificates, even if they are %bogus. I think there’s a racket at work,” M S Thimmappa, former vice-chancellor of Bangalore University, said after seeing them. The certificates, which have the university’s emblem and seal, have blank spaces for name, year and the class (first, second or third class) of the student, besides fields for the vice-chancellor’s signature, register number and verification signatures. The certificates also have content in English on one side and in Kannada on the other. A former Mysore varsity student confirmed his certificate is similarly bilingual.

UoM vice-chancellor KS Rangappa said: “We do not offer engineering courses, so I think these are fake certificates. We’ll take all precautionary measures and even consider issuing public notifications warning people about such fraudulent papers.”Arvind Shukla, director, Authenticate, a company that provides professional solutions to curb fraudulent practices with documentation across industries, said: “Fake degree certificates are turning into an epidemic in the country. Without the use of the right tools to secure university degrees, there could be anarchy. You can apply for an MNC job, go overseas, have bank transactions all with an authentic and very realistic-looking fake degree and other custom-made fake certificates and other documents from major universities across India.”

“I urge all employers to run a verification check with us. We can tell them which one is original,” he added.Thimmappa, while pointing out that every university maintains a balance sheet for certificates, said: “Each certificate printed and those to be destroyed or stored need to be entered into the database.”

The certificates were printed before 2000 because they read: “…certified to have passed the prescribed examination held in the year of 19_ _ has placed in the ______ class”. An expert said, “In fact, if it is issued with a date before VTU was formed, then the checking will be minimal.”

Source: indiatimes