Breakthrough in fake certificate case

NEW DELHI, June 2: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached the assets of Sanjeev Kumar, his wife Puja Shrivastav and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 for selling fake degree certificates of a university shown to be from Shillong.
Mostly comprising bank accounts, fixed deposits and mutual funds, the assets are worth Rs 1.91 crore.
The accused had opened bank accounts in Delhi in the name of Techno Global University Shillong for collecting money by selling fake degree certificates. Their personal accounts were also used for the purpose.
Investigation revealed that these operators had no connection with the real Techno Global University, Shillong and that the money collected from selling the fake certificates was rotated among their accounts in various banks. The money was also invested in mutual funds, fixed deposits and immovable properties to be passed off as genuine transactions.
“They collected a total of Rs 2.65 crore out of which, we attached assets worth Rs 1.91 crore,” an ED official said, adding further investigation in the case was on.
Details available with the University Grants Commission showed the website of the Techno Global University as technoglobaluniversity.com. The university is one of more than half a dozen private universities permitted to open a campus in Meghalaya after the state government passed the requisite legislation in the Assembly in 2008. Earlier, a Meghalaya police team had managed to arrest the husband-wife duo from Patna. Kumar, 36, a resident of Shivpuri under Shastrinagar police station, and Srivastava, 32, were brought to Shillong on Thursday evening on transit remand.
The arrest came after Techno Global University lodged a complaint with Mawlai police that a fake mark sheet was issued to one individual in its name and a fake website in the name of the university was found to have been floated.
Based on the complaint that unknown persons created a fake website and were offering admissions and also issuing fake mark sheets while the genuine university was yet to function, an investigating team was formed.
The team had been pursuing the case in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar before getting hold of Kumar, the mastermind.