100,000 counterfeit certificates found

Patna: Over 100,000 fake certificates of various Indian universities have been found in a Bihar town, police said yesterday, even as the government cracks down on irregularities in the education system.

Acting on a tipoff, a police team raided five places in Biharsharif town in Nalanda district, 100 km from here, and unearthed the racket in fake certificates. It involved three people, including a man and his father-in-law, police said.

More than 100,000 fake certificates and thousands of incomplete ones were found, a police official in Biharsharif said.

The false certificates recovered pertained to the Bihar Sanskrit Education Board, Patna; Hindi Vidyapeeth, Deoghar; and Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Allahabad, among other universities across the country, police said.

Rubber stamps, two computer systems, scanners and other items were also seized.

Only two days ago, the Bihar government had rejected more than four million applications to check a fake degree racket and other irregularities during a teacher recruitment drive for government-run schools.

About 9,000 recruitment centres across the state had received more than 10 million applications for 93,000 teaching posts in the second phase of recruitment.

The absence of industries and other business opportunities forces young men and women in Bihar to apply for jobs in government-run schools and also resort to fake certificates.

Last month, the government sacked 15,000 teachers for submitting fake degrees and certificates.