Fake degree racket running from coaching centres in Delhi busted, 5 held

The students were allegedly lured with flyers distributed near schools and colleges and ads posted on social media platforms. “The accused promoted their illegal services using social media platforms and as well as through printed flyers distributed near coaching hubs and student-populated areas. The documents had an appearance close to genuine ones issued by universities,” said Special Commissioner of Police (CP), Crime Branch, Devesh Chandra Srivastava.

“Once convinced, the students submitted their personal and academic details, which were passed along to other members of the network. These members then generated professional-looking forged documents resembling those from legitimate universities,” he added.

Vicky Harjani, owner of Paramhans Vidyapeeth located at Netaji Subhash Place in Delhi, who was the first to be arrested in the case, allegedly employed telecallers to make calls to students and offer his services, police said. Following this, the other accused — Vivek Gupta, Satbir Singh, Narayan Jee, and Avnish Kansal — were arrested as well.

The arrests were made between June 6 and June 17.

A team led by Inspector Manmeet Malik and ACP Ramesh Lamba was constituted to track the operatives. A total of 228 fake mark sheets and over 5,000 soft copies of similar documents were found on the accused, the Delhi Police said.

“A search of Harjani’s vehicle and office yielded 75 forged academic documents from universities across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Sikkim, Meghalaya, and Tamil Nadu,” Srivastava said.

Gupta, a Class 12 passout, was allegedly operating six to seven educational centres in Noida and was previously involved in a similar case in Shimla.

Satbir Singh, also a class 12 passout, allegedly ran the Gurukul Education Centre in Haryana’s Faridabad with a business partner. While Narayan Jee was operating from Bihar, but he had recently expanded his operations to Delhi and NCR, said officers.

“We also believe that many university employees may have facilitated the racket by providing access to formats, templates, or confidential academic records. Further investigation is on into the matter,” the officer said.