15 June,2011 06:34 AM IST | | Mid DAY Correspondent
Kingpin was planning to contest elections from Mathura
Delhi University admissions are round the corner and Delhi Police has claimed to have busted a fake marksheet racket on Monday. The cops have already arrested four people from the gang. The accused allegedly sold fake marksheet just for Rs 4,000. The gang was also running a fake institute called Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi from Gopalpur Village.
Still smiling: The kingpin of the fake marksheet racket post his arrest
by cops Pic/Mid Day
A senior police official said that the accused persons were identified as Mange Ram Acharya (46), Dilip Kumar Shukla (42), Manoj Kumar Mishra (31) and Dharamjeet Singh (21). The kingpin behind the gang, Acharya, has also contested elections. He has been arrested previously as well.u00a0u00a0u00a0
On record
"Acharya was first arrested for raping his friend's wife. Then he shifted to Gopalpur and started running the fake marksheet racket from his house. He has so far been involved in as many as 17 criminal cases in Delhi and Mathura and is declared a bad character by Delhi Police. He has sold thousands of fake marksheets so far and has nursed political ambitions as well," said the deputy commissioner of the police, north district, IB Rani.u00a0
According to the official, the accused was preparing to contest in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections from Mathura. He is fond of using beacon lights on his cars and one of his cars has been impounded. The police got a tip-off that some people were running the board and collecting huge amounts of money by providing fake pass certificates of class X and XII examinations without the candidate having taken any exam.
The police made a man pose as a customer. He was asked to pay Rs 4,000 for fake marksheets. The deal was struck at Rs 8,000 for two marksheets."Acharya was paid Rs 4,000 in advance. Once the decoy collected the fake certificates on May 31, police raided the premises and arrested Shukla, Mishra and Singh.
However, Achrya managed to give the cops a slip," said the DCP.u00a0She further stated that the gang used to give advertisements in newspapers for providing certificates of Class X and XII to students who have failed Class VIII. A website with URL www.bhsedelhi.org was put up on the internet to build confidence in future clientele. They even claimed that 330 schools were affiliated to the board.
Acharya, who claims to be a graduate from Allahabad University and hails from Gautam Budh Nagar in Noida, lives with his second wife and three children. He is also in alive-in relationship with a woman in Mathura. "Acharya was declared pro-claim offender by a city court as he was evading court trail. Police is interrogating him to know more about his accomplices who are on the run," added the senior police
official.
