Fake certificate racket busted, ex-principal, 6 others arrested in Telangana

HYDERABAD: A fake certificate racket was busted and seven persons arrested on Tuesday. The gang is alleged to have provided fake Intermediate , engineering and graduation certificates to over 100 people whom police are now trying to track down. Each fake certificate was being sold for 3 lakh to 3.5 lakh, Rachakonda cops said.

Among the arrested is a former principal of an Intermediate college, two agents and four buyers. Prime accused Akula Ravi Avinash (33), who created fake certificates, is absconding. The gang was busted after cops nabbed a BTech drop-out, P Abhilash Kumar (25), who had secured a fake engineering certificate in a bid to go abroad.

Abhilash spilled the beans and police arrested C Venkateshwarlu (51), ex-principal, agents Naveen Kumar (28) and G Jyothi Reddy (45), and the buyers - G Vaishali (26) B Kalyan (23), S Vijay Kumar (50) and Abhilash. Cops said the absconder, Avinash, was previously arrested by Warangal police for a similar offence last year.

Cops said that Venkateshwarlu had joined hands with Avinash after suffering losses in two Intermediate colleges he had run at Himayatnagar and Moinabad. Venkateshwarlu used to zero in on drop-outs looking for fake certificates and one of the buyers, Vaishali, used to also help the gang, cops said.

"Avinash supplied fake certificates created using a high-quality colour printer. We will get the full picture after we catch him," Rachakonda commissioner DS Chauhan said while refusing to disclose name of institutes as they had no role in the racket. Cops said they are verifying if anyone got a job or went abroad using the fake certificates.