New Delhi, Dec 27 (IANS): With the arrest of three persons including two school owners, the Delhi Police claimed to have busted a fake education board syndicate that cheated over 10,000 students in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and other states, an officer said on Wednesday.
Altaf Raja, 23, Manoj Kumar, 32, and Shambhu Nath Mishra, 46 -- all residents of Uttar Pradesh's Deoria and Balrampur districts -- were arrested in separate raids between December 12 and 23.
"Police teams first arrested Altaf Raja while giving fake board certificate of higher secondary to a decoy customer in Vikas Puri of Delhi. Altaf Raja was granted 10-day police remand. Following his interrogation, Shamnbu Nath Mishra and Manoj Kumar, owners of two schools in Deoria, were arrested from their locations in Uttar Pradesh," Additional Commissioner of Police Rajiv Ranjan told IANS.
"During investigation, we found that Altaf Raja and his accomplices were operating fake education board named 'Board of Higher Secondary Education' in Vikas Puri. They had cheated over 10,000 innocent students after convincing that their board is recognised and provides mark-sheets and certificates of 10th and 12th in only two to three months for Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000," Ranjan said.
"The gang members collected the details of students on WhatsApp and received the amount in their bank accounts," the officer said.
"A complaint in this regard was also received from the Directorate of Education of Delhi," the officer said, adding that Altaf Raja was last year arrested by the Delhi Police for running another similar fake education board in east Delhi's Geeta Colony.
After being later released on bail, Altaf again started a similar racket with his accomplices.
"The gang members, active in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat and other states, were involved in circulating and distributing mark-sheets and certificates of their fake education board which has 23 websites," he said.
"A large numbers of fake mark-sheets, certificates, provisional certificates and migration certificates, answer sheets, nominal rolls, question papers, record registers of students, and certificates of Class 10 and 12 were recovered from their possession," he added.