The city crime branch officials, who are investigating the fraudulent Standard X certificates racket, have stated that the main accused has admitted to creating two additional fraudulent university websites for distributing counterfeit arts, science, and commerce graduation certificates.
According to the police, these two websites were operating under the names of Al Hind University and Maharashtra Rajya Mukta Vishwavidyalaya in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad).
Last week, the city police arrested four individuals from Sangli, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and Osmanabad, thereby dismantling a network that sold counterfeit Standard X certificates to students who had failed. The racket achieved this by creating a fake website called Maharashtra State Open School (MSOS). The main suspect, identified as Imran Sayyed, an MBA and IT graduate from Sambhajinagar, was apprehended by the police.
On Monday, the police presented Imran and his three accomplices before a city court after the completion of their initial remand. The court extended Imran’s custody until May 13 and sent his accomplices to jail for 14 days under magisterial custody.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime II) Narayan Shirgaonkar, leading the investigation, informed TOI, “An examination of a laptop recovered from Imran revealed that he had issued graduation certificates to over 200 individuals since 2022. Imran hails from an affluent family, being a husband and father of two, with degrees in MBA and IT. He acquired the knowledge of creating fake websites from an online video-sharing and social media platform and collaborated with an acquaintance who possessed web design expertise.”
Shirgaonkar continued, “Imran informed the police that his intention was to establish a counterfeit secondary and higher education board.”
