Lucknow, Sep 17 (IANS): Three people, accused of making fake educational certificates and degrees, were arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district, police said Saturday.

Govind, Ankit and Rajendra -- all in their late 30s -- were nabbed from Bramapuri area Friday night following a joint operation by the Special Operations Group and the district police.

"We raided a hideout and recovered over 500 fake degrees, certificates and mark sheets of law, engineering, business administration and other programmes," police inspector Alok Sharma told reporters in Meerut, some 450 km from here.

The degrees were of various universities like M.J.P. Rohilkhand University (Bareilly), Chaudhary Charan Singh University (Meerut), Lucknow University and the Uttar Pradesh Technical University.

The certificates were also of various educational boards like the Central Board of Secondary Education, Sharma added.

The men sold a degree for around Rs.15,000 to Rs.20,000 each.

The three were involved in the illegal trade for the last four years, said Sharma.