The Balangir police on Monday arrested as many 19 persons, including kingpin of a fake certificate racket Manoj Mishra along with his key associate Alok Udgata.
More than 1,000 fake certificates of different schools, colleges and universities of various States like Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were seized during the raid at a coaching centre ‘Reliance Education Complex’.
Besides, cops also seized cash of Rs 3,67,600, four personal computers, two laptops, three printers, a scanner, an external hard disk and a Xerox machine, said Balangir SP Nitin Kusalkar.
The raid was conducted after publication of reports in media about the fake certificate racket and after getting a written complaint from the Postal Superintendent regarding the use of fake certificates in recent recruitment of Gramin Dak Sevaks and other posts. The police registered a case under Sections 420/465/467/468/471/and Section 34 of the IPC, added Kusalkar.
Main accused Manoj was running the Reliance Educational Complex from1999 and providing coaching to students of different classes and aspirants to different competitive examination, said the SP.
However, from 2016, Manoj along with his associate Udgata started providing fake and forged academic certificates of different boards and universities by using forged seals and stamps and collecting between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh per certificate.
Police investigation so far has revealed that the racket was operating in Balangir, Bargarh, Kalahandi and Boudh districts.