Forged exam receipts scam busted in Junagadh

Rajkot: The first day of Class X and XII exams of the state school board began on a scandalous note on Thursday with Junagadh police busting a racket of using forged receipts to push in dummy writers for students.
The receipt is an entry letter issued by the Gujarat State Higher and Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) based on which a student is permitted to enter into the examination hall. The letter also contains the original picture of the candidate along with his/her full name.
Acting on specific information, the special operations group (SOG) of Junagadh police raided a house and found 44 bogus receipts late on Wednesday night.
So far, police have arrested three persons identified as Rajesh Gujarati, a resident of Junagadh, Rana Taparia, a resident of Kodinar and Pravin Solanki a resident of Keshod. Fourth Ranjeet Gadhvi is still at large.
Preliminary investigation revealed that majority of the 44 students who had contacted the accused to make forged receipts are repeaters. They have also been named in the FIR but are yet to be arrested.
The receipts were of students from Junagadh, Gir-Somnath, Porbandar and Rajkot districts.
Police also seized a laptop, scanning machine, two stamp making machines, a plastic sheet used for lamination of the receipt, butter paper, seven bottles of the liquid used for making rubber stamp, 17 stamps and three round seals of principals of various schools.
SOG inspector Jayraj Vala said, “Rajesh is the mastermind of the scam and he was printing the receipts at his house. He was charging Rs 3,000 per receipt. Students who were poor in studies wanted dummy candidates to write papers for them for which they were willing to pay Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 per paper. In some cases, the accused persons also helped such students find suitable dummy writer.”
The fourth accused Ranjeet Gadhvi, a resident of Keshod, was involved in finding academically weak students in Gir-Somnath and Junagadh district
Talking to TOI, Junagadh superintendent of police (SP) Saurabh Singh said,“We are investigating if parents of these students are also involved in this racket and those whose role is found will be arrested.”
District Education officer of Junagadh, B S Kaila, said, “I have sent the report about the police findings to GSHSEB. According to our information, most of the students whose bogus receipts were found were repeaters. I have sought the board’s advice if these students should be allowed to take the examination or not and what actions including blacklisting should be taken against them.”
The arrested persons have been booked under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery), 473 (making or possessing counterfeit seal, etc., with intent to commit forgery) and section 476 (possessing counterfeit marked material.)