Police bust admission racket in Delhi University, arrest 4, seize forged documents

Those arrested are Sunil Panwar alias Guruji (41), Ranchit Khurana (30), Praveen Jha (35) and Juber (25). Panwar, Khurana and Juber were arrested from Malviya Nagar following a tipoff. Jha was arrested from Laxmi Nagar.

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Police seized forged marksheets, degree certificates, caste and character certificates, a computer, three printers and 40 stamps of different government universities, education boards and colleges from them. The accused have been sent to seven days’ police custody.

The police are probing if employees of the colleges were involved in the racket. “Prima facie, it appears that non-teaching staff of nine colleges were in nexus with the accused, though investigations are still on,” a police officer said.

“We have written to the colleges and obtained the documents of the 22 students suspected to have secured admission on the basis of forged documents. We will on Monday send a questionnaire to the colleges for verification of the degree certificates of the students. We will also be questioning the colleges on the measures they had taken while verifying the educational credentials of the students,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

The police said the gang had been operating in Delhi for the last five years. “The gang charged between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 7 lakh for each admission. They usually forged documents of educational boards in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar,” the officer said.

The police said the accused created fake websites of education boards, where they uploaded details of fake certificates and marksheets to ensure online verification by colleges.

Panwar was the kingpin of the racket while Jha prepared the forged certificates, said police.