Ram Chandra Yadav, the kingpin of the fake certificate racket. Telegraph picture

Patna, April 13: Getting distinction marks in graduation or postgraduation in a reputed university requires hard work — hours of studies and meticulous revision. But Ram Chandra Yadav, a resident of Madhepura district, had made it easy for students. Against Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000, he used to give his clients graduation or postgraduation marksheets with distinction marks. A BEd degree price was a tad higher — between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh.

Yadav, who was arrested from Madhepura on Tuesday, admitted to have sold fake certificates of reputed institutions of the country and several people got jobs in reputed organisations producing them. He is learnt to have sold at least 100 BEd degrees to job aspirants of Madhepura and its adjoining districts in the past four years.

The police seized a large number of BEd certificates of Bharti Shiksha Parishad (Lucknow), blank marksheets, certificates of BA and MA of BN Mandal University, Madhepura, and fake seal of the university as well as other government officials.

The raiding team was surprised to find the official seals of the agriculture and transport departments, which hinted at the magnitude of the racket. Hundreds of blank certificates of University of Punjab, Allahabad University besides those of the varsities of Bihar were recovered during the search of his house.

Madhepura sub-divisional officer Gopal Meena received confidential information about a fake degree racket operating from a house in ward number 4 of Madhepura town. Subsequently, a police team led by deputy superintendent of police Vijay Kumar raided the house and arrested Yadav.

“We have come to know that altogether 25 persons, including women, got teachers’ job in government-run schools of the district producing fake certificates,” said Madhepura district magistrate Minhaz Alam. He said the deputy superintendent of education, Satyendra Yadav, has been asked to conduct a thorough investigation and submit a report at the earliest.

The district magistrate said the service of the teachers who lapped up jobs producing fake certificates would be terminated. “Legal action will also be taken against them,” he said, adding that the antecedents of the arrested person were being verified.

Yadav had reportedly appointed village-level agents to trap job seekers. They were assigned to contact the aspirants. Yadav himself used to finalise the deals. Most of the people contacted Yadav for degrees of reputed colleges and universities.

“The certificates submitted by the candidates at the time of appointment in private sector organisations are not verified. Therefore, the demand of such certificates is high in the area,” an investigating officer quoted Yadav as saying.

Yadav, 55, said scores of people got lucrative jobs in many private sector organisations outside Bihar using the fake certificates issued by him.

This is not the first time when fake certificate racket has been busted in Bihar. A couple of years ago, a Punjab University team visited Bodh Gaya, the headquarters of Magadh University, to verify the authenticity of some certificates. The most prestigious university of the state — Patna University — is not beyond the ambit of the fake certificate racket. At least half a dozen complaints have been lodged at Pirbhore police station in Patna after the certificates sent to the university for verification were found to be bogus.