28-year-old postgraduate arrested last week on the charge of selling fake marks cards

Bengaluru, home to some of the best academic and management institutions and IT companies in the country, is fast becoming a hub for firms offering fake degree certificates. According to officials, it has become a small-scale industry.

Last Thursday, a team of Central Crime Branch officers, who were acting on a tip-off, raided an education consulting firm on MG Road and arrested a 28-year-old postgraduate for allegedly selling fake marks cards to people. Inquiries revealed that the accused, Kunal Kumar Mondal, a native of Bihar, has been living in Bengaluru since 2011, and entered the business of printing fake academic credentials four years ago.

The police believe that he has sold more than 2,000 fake certificates to his customers for a price ranging from ₹1 to ₹2 lakh.

“This means there are many people who have either got admissions in various private colleges or found employment in and around the city with the fake degree certificates,” said a senior police officer, adding that while this is an old problem, over the last year there has been a spike in people venturing into this racket.

In April last year, the CCB raided the office of a distance education centre in Tilak Nagar that offered fake graduation and post-graduation certificates to students for ₹30,000 to ₹50,000.

The kingpin, Ravi Kumar alias Ravi Raj, had allegedly been running this scam for the past six years and offered fake certificates for 56 courses, including BA, B.Com, B.Sc, BBM, M.Com, MBA, MCA, MHRM, LLM and MA.

“These raids are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are firms and individuals who are forging certificates and selling it to customers,” the officer added.

“To save money and time, employers don’t always check a candidate’s credentials through the police though it is mandatory,” he added. Going by the raids in the recent past as many as 40,000 people are working in and around the city with the fake degree certificates. Clients to are culpable in fuelling the demand. The police rarely get formal complaints, and often take suo motu action.