Two held for selling fake degrees in Noida

Noida: Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested two suspects for allegedly making and selling fake degrees and certificates from Sector 58 area of Noida on Sunday

Noida: Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested two suspects for allegedly making and selling fake degrees and certificates from Sector 58 area of Noida on Sunday.

Noida, India- September 18, 2022: Noida Police arrested two people for allegedly making and selling fake degrees and certificates from Sector 63, in Noida, India, on Sunday, September 18, 2022. (Photo by Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The suspects have been identified as Anand Shekhar, hailing from Patna in Bihar and Chirag Sharma from Bulandshahr. Both stayed in rented accommodations in Noida, police said.

Police said that the suspects are also wanted by police in Bangalore for the same crime. When they came to know that an FIR was lodged in Bangalore, they came to Noida a couple of months ago and started their illegal operations here, police added.

The additional deputy commissioner of police (Central Noida), Saad Miya Khan, said that police got information about some suspects who were making fake degrees and certificates of various colleges and selling them. “Police conducted a raid and arrested both the suspects along with fake certificates, marksheets and other tools and devices used in the process”, he said.

“They were wanted in Bangalore for the same crime. When they came to know that an FIR was lodged against them there, they came to Noida in January this year,” ADCP Khan said.

Police recovered 85 fake marksheets of various universities, 58 envelopes of different colleges, seven blank marksheets, 33 mobile phones, 55 sim cards from different service providers, a computer and other tools used in making fake degrees along with stamps of different colleges.

ADCP Khan said that the suspects used to lure their victims with the help of Google advertisements. “They would pay ₹5,000 per day for the advertisements. Once a victim clicked on the advertisement, the suspects got his or her details, including the email id where they would send mails. Alternatively, the victims would also check the number on the advertisement and call them,” he added.

The suspects charged ₹30,000 to ₹70,000 depending on the degree and course. During interrogation, they told police that they used to earn a minimum ₹5 lakh per month. In the last eight months, they had made over 500 fake degrees and certificates, police said.

The suspects said that most of the people who approached them used the fake documents mostly for getting private jobs, police said. They were booked under Section 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), police added.