23-year-old mastermind cheated over 10k students through fake education board

New Delhi: A 23-year-old youth turned out to be the mastermind of fake education board who cheated more than 10,000 students of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and other States. Police claimed that they have arrested the main accused with his two other associates including school owner.

Police identified the main conspirator as Altaf Raja and his associates Shambhu Nath Mishra (46) and Manoj Kumar (32).

"Raja was arrested from Delhi while delivering the fake certificates and mark sheet of Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi to decoy customer," police said adding that on his instances other accused nabbed.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rajiv Ranjan stated that Raja from the year 2014 started working with one Dr Shiv Prasad Pandey (presently in jail) in Lucknow. He came to know that Dr Shiv Prasad Pandey poses himself the Chairman of the Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi and runs the Branch Office of the Education Board (BHSE, Delhi) in Lucknow, UP. They used to issue Certificates of class 10th and 12th by BHSE, Delhi for Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 to the students.

In 2017, Pandey also opened an office along with Altaf in Vikas Puri and prepared new website www.bhse .ac.in. They started working there along with another website www.bhsedelhiboard.net made by one Ashok Kumar Lakhani in which they have listed names of school affiliated with their board and also used to do online verification of mark sheets and certificates issued by them.

He prepared the fake board documents online and got them printed with the setup installed in their office.

The accused prepared more than 23 websites of the fake education board.

Earlier, in September 2017, accused Altaf was also arrested along with Shiv Prasad Pandey and others in another case for preparing fake board certificates. After coming out from the jail, he again started running the syndicate on a higher level.

The fake board syndicate has a wide network of agents who allure the innocent students who cannot pass the Matriculation and Intermediate Examination; weak in studies on the pretext that they will provide the certificate and mark sheet of 10th and 12th with good marks from the BHSE, Delhi on nominal charges of Rs 2000 to Rs 5000. The fake board syndicate is also indulged in providing documents of higher studies from renowned Institutes of different states in India.

Another accused Shambhu Nath opened a school in Deoria and got recognition of Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi.

He used to conduct the examination of the students in their school with the direction of the board and uploaded their data in the website.

"The another culprit Manoj Kumar also opened a school and got affiliation from the board, "police said.