Four youths, including a woman, started an educational institute here with high hopes but as their business did not take off, they allegedly turned to cheating by providing fake degrees.
However, a sting operation by a freelance journalist for a Hindi news channel brought their downfall as they landed in police net.
The arrested have been identified as Sanjay Chaudhary (32), Bhanu (23), Somaya Samantra (22) and Naveen, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-West) Romil Baaniya said.
The arrests came following a complaint filed by a freelance journalist for a Hindi news channel after conducting a sting operation at Jagannath Institute of
Management and Technology in Netaji Subhash Place on February 29.
“As the institution failed to get enough candidates and they suffered loss in this business so they planned to provide fake degree and certificates to the candidates. They used to charge Rs 20,000 for providing the certificates and degrees.
“They started the business of providing fake degree and certificates in December 2011. They used to extract the data of candidates from a website and then contact them. They lured the candidates who used to be in some job by offering them various degrees of previous years for the benefit of their career,” Baaniya said.
During sting operation, he said, the complainant obtained fake certificates and marksheets of MBA for the period 2004-06 though the institution started functioning in June 2011.
“The complainant paid Rs 5,000/ in advance and remaining was to be paid at the time of delivery of the fake certificates and mark sheets. On the statement of the above complainant, a case was registered,” Baaniya said.
A raid was conducted at the institute and Choudhary, the manager, was interrogated.
“He failed to give any satisfactory reply of the above recovered mark-sheets and certificates of previous years. He was arrested. He told us that he started the institute in June 2011 and Somaya and Bhanu are Directors of the said institute,” Baaniya said.
