Delhi police bust fake degree racket, arrest 5

The Inter-State Cell (ISC) Unit of Delhi Police has busted a fake educational degree racket by arresting five accused and recovering hundreds of forged documents, officials said on Friday.

Police mentioned that the arrested individuals were identified as Vicky Harjani, Vivek Gupta, Satbir Singh, Narayan Jee, and Avnish Kansal, and approximately 228 mark sheets along with 27 degree certificates and 20 migration certificates were seized from their possession.

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“Our team received information regarding a group of educational institutions operating in Delhi-NCR issuing fake degrees after collecting hefty sums from students. These degrees, often backdated, were claimed to be from various universities across the country,” said Devesh Chandra Srivastava, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime).

The officer continued by saying that the preliminary investigation into this matter revealed the involvement of several coaching center owners and university staff.

Acting on the specific input, a team apprehended Vicky Harjani, owner of Paramhans Vidyapeeth, at Netaji Subhash Place.

Furthermore, while searching his vehicle and office, 75 forged academic documents from universities across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Sikkim, Meghalaya, and Tamil Nadu were confiscated by the police.

With this, a case was registered under the section 318(4)/336/337/338/339/340/61(2) of the BNS at the Crime Branch police station.

Following the arrest and sustained interrogation of Harjani, the involvement of the four other individuals in this racket came out, who were then apprehended by the police, the DCP mentioned.

During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that all of them were owners of educational institutions operating in different states.

The police have confiscated forged documents, including degrees and mark sheets, along with six laptops and 20 mobile phones during the operation conducted by the team. Moreover, the inquiry into this case is ongoing to uncover clues related to it, as stated by the DCP.