Prayagraj: Investigation into the fake degree racket case shocked the police machinery when cops came to know that the majority of fake degrees of B Pharma were sold out by racketeers in the past five years in eastern UP districts.Sleuths of the cyber crime cell of Prayagraj police commissionerate arrested two key racketeers, including Sashi Prakash Rai alias Rajan Sharma and Manish Kumar Rai, both residents of Azamgarh, on Mar 25 on the charges of running a fake website of UP Board and preparing fake marksheets and degrees of various colleges and universities. The racketeers had sold over 7000 fake degrees in the past 11 years as they were operating since 2014.Ironically, the majority of fake BPharma degrees were sold out in eastern UP districts of the state, including Prayagraj, Varanasi, Azamgarh, Jaunpur and Lucknow.The investigation also revealed that the demand for BPharma degrees was more among degree seekers, particularly those opening a pharmacy or medical store. Ironically, the kingpin of the racket Sashi Prakash Rai also holds a fake B Pharma degree from a Haridwar-based college.A senior cop told TOI, “After acknowledging the fact that the racketeers sold out fake B Pharma degrees and certificates, the law enforcement agencies are trying to find out details of people to whom these degrees were sold out.” He added that “out of about 7,000 B Pharma degrees over 2,500 are fake.”Police sources claimed that seven FIRs were registered across the state in this connection, The miscreants set up a call centre in Azamgarh in the name of Shri Education where they created a fraudulent website of the Board of Secondary Education, Uttar Pradesh and placed advertisements on Facebook offering services to inflate marks on marksheets and to generate fake marksheets. Subsequently, candidates, parents and educational institutions started contacting them.Once contacted, the racketeers arranged for the fabrication of official seals, holograms and marksheet templates resembling those of the concerned colleges or universities. They then digitally manipulated and produced counterfeit, backdated high school, intermediate and university marksheets and degrees, supplying them to candidates, parents or educational institutions seeking such documents.Once the work was completed, they would sell these fraudulent, backdated documents, including marksheets and degrees, for a sum ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per document and dispatch them to the respective recipients via courier. The proceeds generated from each document were subsequently divided among themselves. Further investigation is on.
