Indian police investigate ‘fake degrees’ of government employees

Police are investigating civil servants with qualifications from a private university in India after it emerged that the institution may have sold fake certificates and issued thousands of degrees it was not accredited for. 

A state police special operations group is investigating certifications issued by Rajasthan’s Om Prakash Jogender Singh (OPJS) University, including allegedly fake and backdated ones, according to The Times of India. Since it opened in 2013, the university has handed out more than 43,000 degrees. 

Police arrested the university’s founder and owner, Joginder Singh Dalal, on 5 July after he was linked to an inquiry into alleged paper leaks and malpractice in university entrance exams. 

“A detailed probe into the fake degree scam was launched after allegations surfaced that the university was issuing backdated degrees and certificates, some even before the varsity received relevant accreditation for running the courses,” said V.K. Singh, a senior member of Rajasthan police’s special operations group.

Police sources told local press that preliminary investigations suggested the university may have issued backdated certificates to students requiring them for visa applications, while some courses admitted hundreds more students than the university was permitted to enrol. 

According to Mr Singh, “fake” degrees also were issued to students in 19 neighbouring states and Nepal, as well as Rajasthan, including using “middle men” to directly sell the certificates to paying customers. 

“It was also found that most of them have later also secured jobs in the governments of the concerned states and country based on fake certificates,” he said. The Rajasthan government is now investigating all employees with degrees from the university, local press reported. 

OPJS had already been barred from enrolling students into PhD programmes since December after it failed to comply with procedures set out by the University Grants Commission (UGC). It has now been ordered to halt all admissions.

The university’s former chair, Sarita Karwasra, and former registrar, Jitendra Yadav, were also arrested. 

It comes as authorities investigate the handling of some of the country’s key national exams, including the UGC NET, which determines acceptance for assistant professors and researchers into universities, and the NEET, used for entrance into medical courses. 

According to the Indian Express, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found the evidence that led the Education Ministry to cancel the UGC NET exam a day before it was set to take place was doctored.

Meanwhile, the body has arrested 14 individuals in connection to irregularities in the NEET exam, including a man accused of stealing papers from a vehicle belonging to the National Testing Agency.  

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com