3 held by Crime Branch for running fake education authority in Delhi

The inter-state cell of Crime Branch has arrested three accused involved in running, circulating and distributing mark sheet and certificates by running a fake education board in Delhi and different parts of India.

Altaf Raja (23), a resident of Balrampur district in UP was arrested while supplying fake board certificate of higher secondary. At the instance of Altaf Raja, two more accused, Shambhu Nath Mishra (46) and Manoj Kumar (32), both residents of district Deoria, UP, were arrested.

On September 18, an information was received that one Altaf Raja along with his accomplices is operating a fake education board by the name of Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi, from his office at Vikas Puri. They claim that their board is recognised and provide the mark sheet and certificates of 10th and 12th only in 2-3 months for Rs 5,000 to 10,000. Altaf Raja used to collect the details of students over Whatsapp and receive the money for providing fake documents through his bank account. A complaint regarding the running of fake education board was also received from the Directorate of Education, Delhi, Rajiv Ranjan, Additional Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, said in a statement.

A team led by ACP Jasbir Singh was constituted to unravel the case. The team laid a trap and Altaf Raja was apprehended while delivering the fake certificates and mark sheets of Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi, to a decoy customer sent by the Crime Branch team.

During interrogation, Altaf Raja disclosed that in 2014 he left studies and started working in the office of one Dr Shiv Prasad Pandey in Lucknow. He came to know that Dr Shiv Prasad Pandey posed himself as the Chairman of the Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi, and runs the branch office of the education board BHSE in Lucknow. He used to issue Certificates of class 10th and 12th by BHSE, Delhi for Rs 2,000 to 5,000 to the students. One Ashok Kumar Lakhani was said to be the secretary and owner of the board having an office at Vikas Puri, and website www.bhsedelhiboard.net.

In 2017, Dr Shiv Prasad Pandey opened an office along with Altaf at Vikas Puri and prepared a new website www.bhse.ac.in. They started working there along with old website www.bhsedelhiboard.net of Ashok Kumar Lakhani in which they have listed names of School affiliated with their board and also used to do online verification of mark sheets and certificates issued by them. He prepared the fake board documents online and got them printed with the setup installed in their office. He would issue online Recognition Certificate on the site of the board and the schools would conduct admission on the basis of the certificate.

History-Sheeter

Earlier in September 2017, accused Altaf was also arrested along with Dr Shiv Prasad Pandey and others in another case of preparing fake board certificates. After coming out of the jail, he again started running the syndicate.