Fake certificate racket: Police tighten noose around mastermind, special team to visit Uttar Pradesh 

Tightening its noose around Manoj Mishra, the mastermind of the fake educational certificate racket in Bolangir district, the police have started the process of freezing his bank account. 

Bolangir Police on Monday informed that 21 people including Mishra, who owned a private coaching centre, ‘Reliance Education Institute’ have so far been arrested in connection with the fake certificate racket. 

During the raid, the police stumbled upon over 1000 fake certificates in the name of 41 reputed universities. The fake certificates, verification reports, seals, diaries and rubber stamps, mobile phones, bank accounts and land documents were seized. Besides, the raid team also seized Rs 3.67 lakh in cash from the possession of Mishra. 

Meanwhile, the police have intensified their probe to go deeper into the racket. They are on the job to ascertain how much money he earned through the clandestine deal of fake certificates. During the investigation, the police came to know that as much as Rs 5 lakh was demanded for a fake certificate.  

Prima facie, whenever a job aspirant would produce a fake certificate procured from ‘Reliance Education Institute’ at the time of interview for a government job, a letter would be sent to the concerned University mentioned in the certificate deposited by the candidate. But, the letter instead of reaching the university would reach ‘Reliance Education Institute’.  

So it is suspected that there were some employees of the universities in Odisha and other States who were taking a cut of the money earned through this illegal practice. 

The police have formed special teams who will go to other States to trace out and apprehend other involved persons, Uttar Pradesh being at the top of the list. 

(Reported by Ghateswar Mishra, OTV)