Fake degree racket busted: 700+ BTech, MBA certificates sold

Prayagraj: The arrest of Mohd Rashid by the cybercrime cell of Prayagraj police for running a fake UP Board website and fabricating educational documents has turned out to be a major breakthrough, officials said.Rashid along with his accomplice Sameer was arrested on Monday. Police also seized four mobiles with seven SIMs, 190 fake marksheet, diploma, degrees, one laptop, four fake stamps, 98 holograms, one pen drive, one passbook and two cheque books from them.The duo had sold over 700 degrees diploma of BTech and MBA of different institutes between 2023 and 2026.Earlier, Rashid was jailed in 2023 by Baghpat police on the charges of selling fake marksheet and certificates of High School and Intermediate in western UP districts.Additional DCP (cybercrime), Rajkumar Meena, told TOI that: “After being bailed out in 2023 from Baghpat jail, Rashid set up a fake institute -- Neptune Institute of Management and Engineering. Sameer lured youth seeking degrees and diplomas and in lieu of hefty amounts.”Meena claimed that both Mohd Rashid and Sameer-- residents of New Delhi-- were operating in an organised way in west UP districts, Delhi and Haryana.

After being bailed out, Rashid set up the fake institute and sold over 400 degrees.They had a vast network of brokers distributing fake degrees and diploma of educational institutions and students throughout India.They were printing these fake documents tailoring them to specific demands by producing colour printouts and affixing counterfeit official stamps before handing them over to educational institutions and students.Through the mastermind, Shashi Prakash Rai, the details of these fraudulent documents were also uploaded to the databases of the counterfeit website and other associated websites, thereby enabling educational institutions and students to verify the documents online.