The Sahar police in Mumbai apprehended a 39-year-old man from Gujarat at the Mumbai International Airport on Sunday, unravelling an extensive racket involved in providing counterfeit educational certificates to school dropouts. The accused, identified as Prathamesh Maniyar, a resident of Jamnagar, was intercepted by immigration officials upon his arrival from Bangkok.
The Airport Interception and Questioning
Maniyar landed in Mumbai from Bangkok at 2.30 am on Sunday. During routine questioning at the immigration counter, his vague and unsatisfactory answers about his profession raised immediate suspicion. The immigration officer, Rohithash Kumar (40), escalated the matter. When produced before a passenger profiling officer, Maniyar claimed his business was helping students secure admissions in schools and colleges across Gujarat. However, he later confessed to a more illicit operation: providing fake certificates to people seeking jobs or planning to migrate to countries like Canada and the UK.
Details of the Widespread Racket
An examination of the suspect's mobile phone revealed the staggering scale of the operation. Police found a digital cache containing lists of forged documents meant for at least 13 individuals. The fake certificates were designed to appear as if issued by universities in Bhopal, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.
Investigations indicate that Maniyar had been active in this illegal business since 2015, charging anywhere between Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh for each fake certificate. While he posed as an educational consultant facilitating admissions in Jamnagar, his real trade was supplying fake degrees and marksheets to youths aiming to go abroad.
He operated through a large network of agents spread across multiple cities, including Jaipur, Bhopal, Ambala, and Delhi. Financial transactions for the racket were allegedly routed through various bank accounts in Jamnagar and Baroda (Vadodara).
Evidence Seized and Ongoing Probe
The police seized a significant volume of digital evidence from Maniyar's phone. This included:
- Fake Gujarat Board mark sheets.
- Counterfeit provisional certificates and degrees.
- Forged marksheets prepared in the names of specific students.
- Screenshots of conversations with agents and clients.
- Records of passengers who had recently travelled abroad and were in WhatsApp chats regarding document details.
The authorities have registered a case against Prathamesh Maniyar for preparing fake documents, cheating, and misleading various institutions. The police are now working to determine the total number of victims from different states who were provided with these fraudulent certificates and the complete sum of money earned by the racket since its inception in 2015.
