RAJKOT: The bogus degree and certificate scam flourishing for 38 years in Rajkot has revealed that at least 250 youngsters have got jobs in the various government departments, including armed services, with fake marksheets.
Rajkot's detection of crime branch (DCB), which is investigating the case, has arrested the kingpin of the racket Ketan Joshi, a resident of Khambha in Amreli district along with Tanuja Singh of Delhi, Jitendra Pithadiya from Jamnagar and Paras Lakhani of Rajkot.
The institute that was raided in Rajkot was run by Jayanti Patel, 62, who has already been arrested earlier.
Y B Jadeja, investigating officer, said the accused had set up a parallel Delhi higher secondary education board with an office in the national capital which was handled by Tanuja.
"Joshi is the mastermind of the entire racket. They had set up a duplicate education board of Delhi in 2011 and given fake affiliations to 54 schools in 14 states and 49 cities. The states include Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal,Meghalaya, Punjab, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala and Uttarakhand," Jadeja said.
The details were revealed during the interrogation of the arrested accused.
DCB officials said as many as 8,500 from Gujarat alone had taken fake marksheets and certificates from the accused by paying him anything from Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000.
The students then got jobs in various government departments including railways, petroleum department, air force, paramilitary forces, post office and several others.
Recently, DCB lodged an offence against a student, who had failed Class XII exam, but managed to get admission in a dental college in Udaipur on the basis of a fake marksheet obtained from the accused.
"She also served in the Rajkot Civil Hospital during Covid-19 pandemic for three months," said Jadeja.
It was on May 10 that DCB had raided the office of Jayanti Patel in Madhav Complex on Nana Mava Road and unearthed the scam that was flourishing since 1983. Patel, 62, had confessed to issuing thousands of degrees and fake marksheets, mostly to youngsters seeking jobs in the local industries.
