When plain-clothes officers from the Inter-State Cell (ISC) of Delhi Police’s Crime Branch raided a nondescript office in Netaji Subhash Place, they walked into the nerve-centre of one of the most sophisticated education-forgery rackets the National Capital Region has ever seen. By the time the swoop ended, five key operators were in custody and investigators were staring at mountains of counterfeit mark-sheets, degree scrolls, migration certificates and hard-drives crammed with thousands of digital templates.
How the Case Broke Open
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A tip-off from inside the coaching ecosystem
Rumours had been circulating that certain “education guidance” shops in Delhi-NCR could procure back-dated BA, B.Tech or even MBA degrees. A covert technical and human-intelligence sweep by the Crime Branch confirmed that enquiries about these shortcuts were being funnelled to one Paramhans Vidyapeeth, owned by 35-year-old Vicky Harjani. -
The decisive raid
Officers intercepted Harjani outside his office. A quick search of his car yielded 75 forged certificates. Simultaneous raids on linked premises uncovered another 200-plus forged mark-sheets, 27 fake degree scrolls and 20 fabricated migration certificates—spanning universities in at least nine states.
The Five Accused and Their Roles
| Name | Background | Alleged Role in Syndicate |
|---|---|---|
| Vicky Harjani | Class-X pass; owner of Paramhans Vidyapeeth | Kingpin; controlled template library and printing unit |
| Vivek Gupta | Class-XII; runs 6-7 centres in Noida | Client acquisition; repeat offender wanted in an earlier forgery case |
| Satbir Singh | Class-XII; runs Gurukul Education Centre, Faridabad | Regional recruiter; handled Haryana pipeline |
| Narayan Jee | BA graduate; Bihar-based operator | Expanded business into eastern states |
| Avnish Kansal | B.Tech; currently lodged in Jaipur jail for similar offences | Remote designer–printer; supplied high-resolution templates |
Police say the five presided over 20-25 coaching and counselling centres that served as storefronts for the racket.
Inside the Forgery Factory
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Document haul – 275 physical certificates, 5,000-plus soft copies covering BA, B.Sc, B.Com, B.Tech, BAMS, B.Ed, MBA and MA.
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Hardware & software – Six laptops loaded with design suites, 20 mobile phones for encrypted chats, high-end colour laser printers, foil-stamping plates, hologram sheets and rubber seals that mimicked real university insignia.
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Price card – From ₹20,000 for a plain mark-sheet to ₹2 lakh for a back-dated postgraduate degree bundled with “verification support.”
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Social-media playbook – Telegram channels, WhatsApp broadcast lists and paid ads with tag-lines like “Complete graduation in 30 days—100 % genuine.” Flyers were plastered near metro stations and student hostels to reel in desperate candidates.
Why It Worked: Systemic Loopholes
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Manual verification fatigue – Employers and smaller colleges often rely on emailed scans, which the syndicate could doctor in minutes.
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Multiplicity of universities – With 1,100-plus accredited institutions nationwide, HR staff struggle to track formats and seals.
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Digitisation lag – National Academic Depository adoption remains patchy, leaving a vacuum that forgers exploit.
Ripple Effects on Society
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Erosion of merit – Genuine graduates face scepticism, and job markets get flooded with under-qualified hires.
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Regulatory distrust – When back-dated degrees surface, even authentic distance-education programmes come under suspicion.
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Potential national-security risks – Forged technical degrees have historically been used to enter sensitive sectors like aviation maintenance and healthcare.
The Legal Thunderbolt
The five accused have been booked under sections for cheating, forgery, using forged documents as genuine and criminal conspiracy. Conviction can draw up to seven years in prison, hefty fines and seizure of tech assets. Police are also probing university insiders who may have leaked authentic templates or enrolment data.
The Road Ahead: Fixing the Cracks
| Vulnerability | Immediate Counter-Measure | Long-Term Reform |
|---|---|---|
| Paper certificates easy to copy | Mandatory QR code on every new mark-sheet | Blockchain-secured National Academic Ledger |
| Third-party “education shops” unregulated | Annual licensing & surprise audits of coaching centres | Central registry of authorised guidance providers |
| Employers skipping checks | Penalise negligent recruiters and blacklist complicit HR firms | Subsidise API-based degree verification for SMEs |
| Low public awareness | College orientation on dangers of shortcut degrees | National media campaign linking fake degrees to criminal liability |
A Cautionary Epilogue
The Delhi-NCR bust is not the first of its kind, and—unless systemic fixes take root—it will not be the last. It stands, however, as a clarion call. Every forged scroll handed to an employer is not just a piece of counterfeit paper; it is the theft of opportunity from a deserving candidate and a crack in the foundation of India’s knowledge economy. Ending that theft demands both tougher policing and a 21st-century overhaul of how the nation certifies, stores and trusts its academic records.
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