6 more held in Jamnagar fake degree racket

Rajkot: The Jamnagar police has arrested six more persons in connection with the fake degree scam busted early this month. The accused, who were arrested in last couple of days, had procured fake degrees and marksheets to secure their jobs a leading petrochemical firm.
This takes the total number of persons arrested in the inter-state fake degree racket to 14, including five who operated the racket and nine beneficiaries who produced bogus certificates from them.
The racket was unearthed on June 11 with the arrest of 29-year-old woman Deepika Upadhyay, her father Pushkar Upadhyay (58), both residents of Sadhuvasvani Road in Rajkot; Saurabh Singh Rajput (25) and Rohit Pandey (25), both from Uttar Pradesh. One Bhrugu Upadhyay, was arrested later after his name cropped up during investigation. Bhrugu has been handed over to Rajkot police where a separate complaint was lodged against him.
Six arrested in last couple of days have been identified as Yogesh Goswami, Jay Dangar, Mayur Gohil, Vimal Bakraniya, Kisan Dharvadia and Mahendra Marathi. All six are working in a renowned petrochemical company based in Jamnagar.
According to police, these six accused feared that they will be sacked if they do not have class X pass certificate. They contacted the Deepika to get fake certificates to ensure that they do not get sacked, said the investigating officer. Earlier, police had arrested three beneficiaries who had bought fake degrees from Deepika and her agents.
As per an estimate over 150 persons were issued fake degree certificates by the accused over two years in Jamnagar and Rajkot. Investigation has also revealed that the racket was spread across the country and the accused made fake degree certificates of 20 universities and three school boards.
Their network is spread in Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and other states. A team has been sent to Delhi for further probe.
The accused used to charge anywhere between Rs 35,000 and Rs 2.5 lakh for issuing fake degrees and marksheets of SSC and undergraduate as well as post-graduate courses of 20 universities. The scamsters operated through 14 agents spread across the states.