Fake university degree certificates racket busted in Bengaluru

A man was arrested for selling fake university degree certificates for the past many years, the Central Crime Branch of Bengaluru said.

Bengaluru: Bengaluru's Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested a man during raids on five institutions for selling fake university degree certificates for the past many years. As many as 6,846 fake certificates of 15 reputed universities, 22 laptops, one printer, computers and 13 mobile phones were seized from his possession, the CCB said in a statement here on Friday.

The police raided Quest Technologies in Rajaji Nagar, System Quest in JP Nagar, Arohi Institute in Bhadrappa Layout, Vishwajyoti College in Dasarahalli and Benaka College in Vijayanagar and the accused was identified as Vikas Bhagwat. During the interrogation, the accused revealed that he ran a systematic network where he used to issue fake degree certificates from various universities.

City Police Commissioner CH Pratap Reddy said that they seized graduation and post-graduation degree certificates from Bangalore University, Annamalai University, Sikkim University, Venkateshwara University and Mangalore University. The CCB police, who earlier raided the fake mark sheet network, launched a special operation based on the information of the accused and sent the seized mark sheets to the respective universities.

On Wednesday, the Subramanyapur police arrested four persons from Andhra Pradesh, who were trying to circulate fake currency notes in Bengaluru and also seized fake notes worth Rs 11 lakhs from them, the police said. The arrested accused are identified as Charan Singh, Rajini, Pullalarevu Raja and Gopinath from the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. Rs 11 lakhs in the denomination of Rs 500 notes and equipment for printing fake notes were seized from the accused.

"On January 19, the police received a tip-off about the circulation of fake notes near Purnaprajna Layout, Uttarahalli in Bengaluru. The police conducted an operation and seized 818 notes of Rs 500 denomination in fake currency worth Rs 4 lakhs and arrested two people. Accused Charan Singh and Rajini were distributing fake notes in a Bolero Jeep near Sadhana College of Purnaprajna Layout," said Sandeep Patil, Additional Commissioner of Police, City West Division.