Thiruvananthapuram: An undergraduate degree for Rs 50,000. And Rs 1 lakh for an MBA and other postgraduate courses. That was the rate in a fake university degree distribution racket Kerala Police unearthed last month, which was used by thousands of Indian students every year to study or work abroad—and has now triggered a political row in Australia.
The months-long investigation revealed that the racket provided fake certificates from major public and private universities, such as Madras University and the University of Hyderabad, to lakhs of students since 2013.
Police said the clientele was mostly young people from across India hoping to go to Europe, the UK, the US, and the UAE for higher studies and work.
The bust took place in December, three months after the Malappuram police started following the trail of a set of fake certificates through DTDC courier centres, from a small town in Malappuram’s Ponnani to Bengaluru and then to Tamil Nadu’s Sivakasi.
Since October, the team has arrested 15 people, including five from Tamil Nadu, and seized over one lakh university certificates from a printing godown in Sivakasi.
Bibin C.V., sub-inspector at the Ponnani police station, who was in charge of the investigation, told ThePrint that the team’s continued tracking of deliveries to other states, even after arrests were made in Kerala, helped pin down the racket.
“Once we began the probe, they stopped deliveries to Kerala. But it continued in other states. When we went to Bengaluru, certificates were being shipped to many other states, including West Bengal,” he said.
The investigation led the team to a printing house in Sivakasi and the mastermind behind this operation, Dhaneesh, also known as Danny, a native of Malappuram.
Weeks later, the arrest sparked political controversy in Australia, where Senator Malcolm Roberts targeted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, accusing the government of failing to act against foreign students studying and working in the country allegedly using purchased degrees.
The senator took to X Tuesday, saying Indian police seized one lakh fake certificates and asking if the Australian government would deport those who committed fraud.
Police in India have allegedly seized 100,000 forged certificates from 22 universities, with 1 million plus likely used for jobs abroad.
I warned about this in August (and asked questions during October Estimates) — 23,000 foreign students in Australia were found with… pic.twitter.com/nJj6BHvGiV
— Malcolm Roberts 🇦🇺 (@MRobertsQLD) January 6, 2026
Also Read: 36 yrs on, how Australian man’s underwear led to LDF MLA’s disqualification ahead of Kerala polls
From Ponnani to Sivakasi
The Ponnani police in Malappuram district began investigation last October after receiving intelligence that a resident named Irshad was producing fake university certificates for people planning to go abroad.
The police then searched Irshad’s house, where his two iPhones revealed that he sent soft copies of many certificates through his phone. Several were also saved on the device.
“We realised that these certificates were going to different education consultancy centres across the nation, which then reached students,” Bibin said.
Police said the racket had agents across all districts in Kerala. They tracked the fake certificates being delivered from Malappuram to a DTDC centre in Thiruvananthapuram’s Nedumangad. The certificates were being sent by a person identified as Jassim.
After weeks of searching, Jassim and his associates were arrested in Bengaluru, and during questioning, the police realised that the mastermind was known as ‘Danny’. “Nobody knew the address or had seen him,” said Bibin.
He added that the investigation in Bengaluru led them to Sivakasi, where the certificates were being printed.
In Sivakasi, authorities seized over one lakh university certificates from the printing godown, including those from Madras University, Madurai Kamaraj University, and Hyderabad University. The haul included various undergraduate degrees, an MBA, and a B.Tech certificate.
“They weren’t printing any certificates of universities based in Kerala. Maybe they were scared of being caught,” he said.
Police arrested three staff members, all Tamil Nadu natives. Bibin said questioning them revealed that ‘Danny’ was actually a Malappuram native named Dhaneesh.
“We seized over one lakh certificates. We don’t know how many people were issued, and many must have already gone abroad,” the investigation officer said.
He added that his team was now continuing its probe to track the students who used these certificates and universities to establish that the seized documents were false.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)