Fake certificate racket busted

The police have busted a fake educational qualifications certificate racket and arrested an exserviceman who was running a coaching academy here in the city.

According to the police, the accused, Burla Shankar Rao, had joined the Army in 1987 and retired in 2013. After that, he started ‘A1 Geethanjali Defence Academy’ in Balajinagar of Jawaharnagar to coach aspirants for army entrance tests. His wife, Uma Maheshwari, and son, Uttejare, also coached the students.

The police said that over time, Shankar Rao noticed that many unqualified students were approaching him for coaching and instead of losing business, he decided to provide them with fake education qualification certificates and then admit them into his academy.

He was charging

`45,000 for a Class 10,

`55,000 for Intermediate,

`75,000 for degree, `1 lakh for a MSc, and `1.5 lakh for an MPhil certificate. He would also provide fake LLB certificates for `2 lakh each, the police said. He was assisted in this racket by Ashish, Dileep Rathod, and Sharma.

Fake certificates were issued under the names of Shanghai International University; Osmania University, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Calox Teachers University, William Carey University, Jharkhand State Open School, Ranchi, National Institute of Open Schooling, Indian Institute of Engineers, Sri Satya Sai University of Technology and Medical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Bundelkhand University, and Bihar Sanskrit Shiksha Board, among other institutions. The police said they acted on a tip-off, and the special operations team of Malkajgiri zone, IT core inspector and sleuths of Jawaharnagar police station conducted a raid on the academy premises on Wednesday and seized fake blank certificates with the names of the above- mentioned universities and took Rao into custody.