Regional Institute of Education in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 18: Another case of forged certificate has surfaced at the Regional Institute of Education (RIE) here taking the number of such cases to seven and confirming the presence of an organised racket.

For the first time, a certificate issued by Utkal University was detected fake. In the latest case, a female student was found to have manipulated the certificate by changing her graduation subject from psychology to history. She managed to use the certificate to gain admission into the premier institute.

Following detection of three cases where students had forged their certificates to get admission into the RIE, the authorities had decided to screen the certificates of all the students who were taking admission this academic year. The certificates were sent to the respective universities. Subsequently, three new certificates all from the North Orissa University, were detected fake in September. However, the Utkal University confirmed yet another case this week.

“We had been sent some certificates to check their authenticity. One of the certificates was found forged and the RIE authorities had accordingly been informed. The matter has also been reported to Utkal University's vice-chancellor,” said controller of examinations S. K. Das.

“I have already written to the National Council of Educational Research and Training informing them about the developments and they are very much in favour of taking it up seriously. We are expecting a reply in a day or two and hope that stringent action will be taken against the erring students,” said U. K. Nanda, acting principal of RIE .

In another development, the North Orissa University has decided to make changes in its certificates to avoid forging. “We are changing the logo, adding watermark and a new hologram to the certificates. However, faking the certificates are a lot easier these days, with the advancement of technology and printing techniques. Especially the photocopies that are used for submission during admission can be very easily tampered,” said controller of examinations of North Orissa University L.D. Nayak.