BENGALURU: A man was arrested in connection with a fake PhD and honorary doctorate racket. The arrest comes after former Law Minister S Suresh Kumar took to social media to explain how he had been offered a doctoral degree from a university in UK for which quoted `1.75 lakh. Police had registered suo moto case.
A senior police official said, “We arrested Kiran Manohar Bangle (61) based in Sanghli in Maharashtra.” Police recovered fake letterheads of several universities in the UK, US and Australia. “The inquiry is still going on,” said the police official.
After former Law Minister S Suresh Kumar posted the incident on Facebook, Express had published a news report about the same on April 9.
As per his post, Victoria Global University in the UK had offered to confer on him honorary doctorates for a price. The varsity’s letter stated that he was among the 40 shortlisted candidates from India to get such an honour. It also attached a list of 58 people who received those degrees in the past, including a few politicians from Karnataka.
Suresh Kumar approached police and told them that the award ceremony was scheduled to held in Bengaluru on April 29. The invite also mentioned DG&IGP R K Dutta as the chief guest for the award ceremony.