‘Five-minute degree’ racket gang busted, one arrested

Bareilly: A fake degree racket was busted by police on Sunday. One person was arrested while his two accomplices managed to flee.

Preparing fake degrees and certificates for those seeking government jobs and admissions in schools and colleges, the gang made tall claims of completing their work in five minutes.

According to police, three persons were running the racket from a rented house at Ashok Nagar under Subhashnagar police station. An FIR has been lodged and the arrested accused was sent to prison.

Superintendent of police (SP), city, Abhinandan Singh, said, “The three accused were identified as Amit (27), a resident of Veerpur Makruka village under Bhojipura police station; Ravindra Pratap Singh (29), a native of Ganeshnagar under Shubhashnagar police station; and Baburam Gangwar (32) of Madinath under Shubhashnagar police station. A five-member police team raided the location. On seeing us, Amit raised the alarm and they started fleeing the area. This is when we nabbed Amit.”

Singh added, “After interrogating Amit, we came to know that the gang was involved in preparing fake school and college degrees. Birth and death certificates at high prices were part of their work. An FIR has been lodged against the trio under section 420 (cheating) and various other sections of forgery and cheating.”

The police also recovered nine stamps, a coloured printer, a keyboard, a laptop, four fake TCs and a death certificate from the location.