Kanpur(UP), Jul 3 (PTI) Kanpur Police on Friday busted a fake degree and marksheet racket allegedly operating across more than two dozen states, arresting two persons and recovering forged educational documents, cash and digital evidence.
Police Commissioner Raghubir Lal told PTI that the action was carried out jointly by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and Pheel-khana police following intelligence inputs about an organised network involved in preparing and selling fake university documents.
The accused were identified as Amit Kumar Saxena (35) and Gopal Gupta (38), while the alleged mastermind, Akhilesh Shukla of Unnao, and his brother Nikhilesh remain absconding.
The police also recovered 59 forged documents, including marksheets, migration certificates, provisional certificates and degrees purportedly issued by several universities, besides four Android phones and Rs 4.53 lakh in cash.
According to the police, the syndicate had a network of nearly 500 agents across multiple states and around 500 clients. Preliminary scrutiny of bank accounts linked to the accused has revealed transactions of nearly Rs 60 crore.
The SP said Shukla had earlier been arrested by Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar police in December but allegedly resumed the racket after securing bail in April.
During interrogation, the accused allegedly admitted they had been involved in the fake degree trade for nearly a decade, supplying forged educational qualifications to candidates across the country.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Satyajeet Gupta said the gang allegedly exploited admissions in newly established universities and colleges before arranging forged or manipulated academic records.
An FIR has been registered and efforts are underway to arrest the absconding accused and identify other members of the network. PTI COR CDN APL APL APL
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