The police on Wednesday arrested six persons, including a peon and a terminated clerk of Lucknow University, for providing fake marksheets and degrees. The accused had been operating the racket from the varsity campus for the last several years, police said.

Fourteen fake marksheets, envelopes, letter pads of the controller of examination, a scanner and computer used to prepare the fake mark sheets were recovered from them.

Suspecting the involvement of more university employees in the racket, police are conducting a further probe into the case.

Mahanagar circle officer (CO) Santosh Kumar Singh said those arrested were identified as Khirodhan Prasad alias Gangesh, Nayab Hussain, Deepak Tewari, Ravindra Pratap Singh, Deewan Singh and Madhurendra Pandey.

He further informed that Gangesh and Nayab Hussain are the two masterminds behind the racket. While Hussain works as a peon in the records section where old marksheets and degrees are kept, Gangesh was sacked from the post of clerk at Lucknow University in 2009 after he was found involved in financial embezzlement. The duo used the university campus to operate their racket, informed the CO.

They formed a nexus with the help of Deewan Singh, who ran a coaching for selection in exams for government jobs and Deepak Tewari, whose father was also employed with the university. Tiwari’s elder brother also works as a driver in the university.

The two other gang members, Ravindra Pratap Singh and Madhurendra Pandey, visited the university campus regularly and worked as liaison agents to bring clients who wanted to procure fake marksheets and degrees.

Singh said Nayab Hussain has access to old records and marksheets and used these details to prepare fake marksheets. Gangesh, too, built a network with other university employees and had easy access to different departments and sections on the varsity campus.

The racket came to the fore while investigating a complaint lodged by one Saurabh Yadav. Yadav lodged a complaint against Deewan Singh for duping him of ₹1.4 lakh on the pretext him of getting him admission in the five-year law course in the university. Deewan Singh assured Yadav that his name had been enrolled in the course and made arrangements for him to sit him in the examination of the first and second semesters after taking money from him. Later, he handed him fake mark sheets of the first two semesters.

Asked about the issue Lucknow University registrar SK Shukla said, “The university will conduct an audit of the system to weed out loopholes, if any, that may be used to make fake marksheets. We will also ensure strict action against the accused once we receive a formal communication from the police.”

First Published: Apr 18, 2019 05:27 IST