BENGALURU: The CCB has unearthed a fake marks card racket, arresting three suspects from Bengaluru, Dharwad and Belagavi in connection with the case.
The accused were running a distance education academy, with branches in Bengaluru, Dharwad and Belagavi. They were allegedly issuing fake marks cards for SSLC and PUC by charging around Rs 20,000 per document. Using the fake documents, some people allegedly managed to obtain jobs in the transport and child welfare departments, while others even used them in applying for passports. Soft copies of more than 350 marks cards were found in the mobile phones of the accused.
The CCB is also obtaining information on those who managed to secure government jobs illegally. However, those who received the marks cards from the accused were reportedly unaware that they were fake. Following recruitment, the said departments sent the marks cards to the very academy run by the accused for authentication, with the latter stating that they were genuine.
The CCB has also recovered laptops, marks card copies, and other documents from the accused, identified as KJ Monish (36) of Srinivasanagar in Banashankari 3rd Stage here, S Prashanth Gundumi (41) of Chaitanya Nagar in Dharwad; and Rajashekar H Ballari (41) of Lakshmeshwar in Gadag.
The accused would enrol correspondence students at study centres and allegedly issue mark sheets without exams. The marks sheets were issued in the name of the Karnataka State Council of Intermediate and Higher Education. The accused used to print the marks sheets at their office in Banashankari and Dharwad. The police have appealed for information, if such fake marks sheets have been submitted anywhere.
The racket came to light following a complaint from a 46-year-old realtor from Palace Guttahalli at the CCB police station, last December. The complainant’s nephew, who had finished his 10th, wanted to pursue distance education.
He, along with his uncle, approached the Mercury Academy Distance Education Centre, run by the accused, where they were told not to worry about the exams, claiming that they had contacts in the departments concerned. They were asked to collect the marks card within a month. When the complainant went to the academy to collect the same, he took CCB sleuths along. The police first arrested Monish, before nabbing the other two accused.