Cops bust fake SSC certificate racket

MUMBAI, June 22: The illegal trade of fake Secondary School Certificate SSC examination passing certificates is getting technology-savvy. ...

MUMBAI, June 22: The illegal trade of fake Secondary School Certificate SSC examination passing certificates is getting technology-savvy. The N M Joshi Marg police on Sunday raided residences at Worli and busted a sophisticated, well-knit racket involving 90-odd fake mark sheets, process cameras, enlargers, screens, a computer and a large stock of photographic equipments. Seven racketeers have been arrested.

The busting of the racket assumes significance as the SSC results will be out next week, and educational institutions are likely to be alerted to such malpractices, said a senior police officer.

The police also recovered 69 application forms of students seeking jobs through one Adarsh Career Academy, run by Dilip Devasale, who has been named the kingpin8217;. Investigations revealed that Devasale has been running the racket for the last two years, from centres like Sangli and Kolhapur. He was selling fake mark sheets pegged between Rs 1,500 and Rs 10,000 and also arranging jobs for candidates, claimedthe police.

8220;The job is so neatly done that it is difficult to distinguish the fake certificate from the original one. The print in the original is just a bit brighter,8221; remarked Sunil Paraskar, Deputy Commissioner of Police zone III.

The arrest of Devasale was the first lead for the investigation team. His interrogation in turn led them to Ganesh Palav and Shrikant Raut, residents of Bhimnager at Worli. Investigations revealed that all the certificates were being screen printed by Pravin Zikmade, a resident of Gandhinagar. A police raid on his house led to the seizure of plastic positives, printing material, colour paper and inks of various colours.

He in turn led the police to Sharad Samant, at whose Akshay Enterprises the art work for the certificates was being done.

The photography of this art work was further done by Deepak Kamble at Black and White Commercial Photography Centre, run by Milind Deshmukh.

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The investigations were carried out senior inspector Vijay Kadam, inspector Kadar Khan,assistant inspector S Ghule and Ravindra Dongre. They said they were following more leads that could take them to a few more members of the gang and result into revelation of more information.