The Awadh Institute of Dental Sciences, one of the 10 universities against which police have registered cases. Picture by Naeem Ansari

Lucknow, March 10: Ten fake universities in Uttar Pradesh have been found selling degrees to college dropouts planning to shift abroad after several embassies got back to the state government to check if the certificates were genuine.

A police officer probing the case said some of these universities operated from hole-in-the-wall establishments and did not have the infrastructure for classrooms or space to conduct examinations.

“We have been receiving complaints from a number of victims. The University Grants Commission forwarded us a list of these universities. We have ordered a probe,” state higher education special secretary P.N. Batham told The Telegraph.

A member of the state police’s special task force, which is investigating the scam, said a graduate degree would come at a cost of Rs 15,000-20,000.

The price would be much higher — about Rs 50,000 — for a postgraduate certificate.

The STF officer said the clients, most of them dropouts from mainstream universities, would buy the degrees for jobs in countries like Nigeria, the UAE, Thailand and nations with emerging economies.

“Many countries have now learnt their lesson after recruiting people with fake degrees from Indian states. They are getting back to us to verify and that is how we came to know about the operation of the fake universities in Uttar Pradesh,” Batham said.

The UGC’s own website lists fake universities in eight states but shows that the highest number — 10 — operated in Uttar Pradesh.

They include the Mahila Gram Vidyapith, Prayag, Allahabad; the Indian Education Council of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow; Gandhi Hindi Vidyapith, Prayag; National University of Electro Complex Homeopathy, Kanpur; Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (Open) University, Aligarh; Uttar Pradesh Vishwavidyalaya, Mathura; Maharana Pratap Shiksha Niketan Vishwavidyalaya, Pratapgarh; Gurukul Vishwavidyalaya, Vrindavan; and Indraprastha Shiksha Parishad, Noida.

The state police have also registered cases against some dental colleges, including the Avadh Institute of Dental Sciences, which were operating without affiliation.

The Mahila Gram Vidyapith, the sole women’s university in the state, operated from a nondescript building in the Sangam city and had been charging hefty fees from students.

The Maharana Pratap Vishwavidyalaya, owned by a politician and now under lock and key, was labelled a fake varsity after a visit by UGC officers last year. At least 50 students who got degrees from the institute in the past year have been left high and dry.

Dinesh Sharma, who bought a degree from Lucknow’s Indian Education Council, told the police that some middlemen took him to a two-storey building in a lane in the Chinhat area, about 35km from the city centre.

The doors of the building are now locked and the owner of the house said he had no idea that a university used to operate from there.

An inspector from Chinhat police station said there was no infrastructure for classrooms or a library.

Dinesh, who paid Rs 15,000 for a BA degree, lost his job in the UAE after the Gulf state’s embassy in India got back to the Uttar Pradesh government.

Last week, the 32-year-old who had been eyeing a primary schoolteacher’s job, stood nervously before STF investigators.

But his plight, and that of many others, as well as queries from the embassies helped alert the state government.

The heartland’s education officers have now launched a campaign against the fake universities and warned students not to be misled by newspaper ads.

“These universities have given the state a bad name,” said a secretary in the higher education department.