Warangal: Cops bust fake certificate racket

Warangal: A few days after the arrest of a fake sureties racket, Warangal Commissionerate Police on Tuesday struck again this time around with a big catch nabbing 12 persons of the 15-member gang that has been engaged in a fake educational certificate enterprise.

The accused have been identified as Dara Arun of Mahabubabad, Akula Ravi Avinash of Narsamoet, Mamidi Srikanth Reddy (consultancy) of Hanumakonda, Arandula Mahesh of Duggondi, Mirza Akthar Ali Baig of Hanumakonda, Madisetty Sachin of Madikonda, Chidala Saloni alias Radha of Ghatkesar, Pogula Sudhakar Reddy, Mamidi Swathi, Baloju Srinath, Nalla Pranay and Ambati Uttam Kiran of Hanumakonda. The police who seized a huge haul of certificates have launched a manhunt for the three other accused – Kasa Srinivas Yadav of Hyderabad, Kundarapu Krishna and Narisetty Surender of Hanumakonda who are on the run.

Disclosing the details to media persons, Commissioner of Police Tarun Joshi said that the prime accused Arun and his friend Ravi Avinash, who both having adept knowledge in computers, used to run an internet centre in Mahabubabad. With their income not sufficient to run their lives, they had decided to create forged documents to the needy. Finding it lucrative, the duo started to expand their range to prepare certificates of various universities. The duo also supplied fake certificates to some of the educational consultancies in the region who process student admissions abroad.

The gang was cautious in preparing the fake certificates as they purchased paper online from abroad to match the quality of varsity certificates. The gang used to charge up to Rs 4 lakh from each candidate based on the service it provided, the Commissioner said. Acting on a tip-off, the police raided several educational consultancy services and found fake certificates. The Commissioner heaped praise on Additional DCP Vaibhav Gaikwad, Task Force inspectors Srinivasji, Santhosh, sub-inspectors Hemanandam and Priyadarshini who busted the racket. It may be mentioned here that the Task Force arrested five of a six-member gang on the charge of providing fake documents in courts to facilitate bail for suspects in criminal cases on December 16.