Bengaluru: Central Crime Branch sleuths on Saturday raided the office of a distance education centre in Tilak Nagar that offered fake graduation and post-graduation certificates to students for Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000.
The sleuths arrested Safiya Banu (25), a resident of Arekere on Bannerghatta Road, and have launched a manhunt for Ravi Kumar alias Ravi Raj, who is said to be the kingpin and hails from Secunderabad.
Ravi had been running the centre, Vijetha College Admission & Information Centre, for the last six years at Sai Plaza Building in Jayanagar 4T Block, 4th Cross. The centre offered fake certificates for 56 courses, including BA, B.Com, B.Sc, BBM, M.Com, MBA, MCA, MHRM, LLM and MA.
The centre claimed to be affiliated to entities like Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC), SERI (School For Education Research & Innovation), Madurai Kamaraj University, Dravidian University, Rashtriya Vishwa Vidhyapeeth, Mumbai, C.V. Raman University, Chhattisgarh, Board of Open Distance Learning, West Bengal, Global Open University, Nagaland, and RKDF University, Kerala, the sleuths said.
The CCB received a tipoff that the centre leaked question papers to candidates and made them write exams. The candidates would get sealed mark cards and degree certificates within 30 days of registering themselves with the centre by paying anywhere between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000, depending on the certificates they sought, the sleuths said. The staff at the centre also issued pre-dated certificates to the candidates, they said.
The sleuths have seized fake mark cards, certificates, question papers, answer sheets, rubbers stamps, computers, mobiles and other gadgets used for preparing these certificates.
The accused have been booked under IPC 465, 468, 471, and 420 read/with 34. The case has been registered at the Tilak Nagar police station.
