‘Authentic’ Fake On Sale

The Intermediate Council of Schooling Edu­cation sounds very much like a genu­ine board examination. In fact, its acronym ICSE can be easily confused with the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education—the Class X exams held by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations.

That is exactly the kind of error that seven education racketeers in West Delhi were relying upon. The genuine ICSE is a certification granted by 2,100-plus schools in the country. In February 2016, Delhi Police busted a racket that was operating a website called IndianICSE.in.

The police say the racket offered fake degrees for everything from Class X to an MBBS. The website still exists and lists a Bachelor of Law degree as well as degree is education, science, commerce, business studies and several diplomas in technical and vocational training.

Apart from the obvious problem with fake medical, law and other degrees, the existence and operation of such rackets has a direct bearing on dubious bar enrolments. The police also seized a large number of degree certificates from them, adding these were all fake. (These include the Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University of Bihar, whose graduation certificate former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar had shown.) Such bachelor’s degrees—especially since they are backdated—can be easily coupled with fake or genuine law degrees to obtain an enrolment with a state bar council.

The ‘education consultancy’ firm used to advertise offering help on any form of edu­cational certification. ‘Students’ approaching them would be promised and deliver a backdated degree on a certificate that would look very convincing. After enrolments, they would upload first the admit cards and then the marks on the websites, then deliver the ‘degrees’. The cost would range between Rs 10,000 and Rs 2 lakh per certificate.

The website promises a ‘temper (read: tamper)-free’ hologram and ‘special secur­ity features’. A large number of private employers now employ the services of for­ensic consultants who verify degrees and antecedents of potential employees. To beat such intrusion, IndianICSE website has a section that ‘verifies’ the degree awarded to the ‘scholars’. The portal even urges a word of caution to those claiming fraud, “Persons coming across and such publications/ information/ back dated dmc/ and in receipt of letters or emails containing such allegations are requested to ignore the same and bring them to the notice of undersigned”.

Many developed countries offer migration to those with technical skills. Since it offers diplomas in technical education, the IndianICSE website has published a circular directed to embassies and government dep­artments as well. The verification charge for the government and embassies is set at Rs 2,000. Anyone looking to affiliate their study centre with IndianICSE need only send a letter of application with a demand draft for Rs 20,000.

The police say the racket was busted in 2014. The operation conducted by the West District of Delhi Police was indeed impressive, except for one thing: the same racket, operated by the same people, had existed in East Delhi till the police of that district had busted it in 2014. That was called ICS Education at Jalandhar.

During the 2014 bust, the racketeers were found distributing fake Class 10 deg­rees for Rs 42,000 from the ICSE that has now been busted. The arrested were released on bail and seem to have gone back to the trade, albeit in changed locations.

Another website—not yet busted—runs under the name of The Council of Basic And Technical Education (CBTE), Punjab, and offers the same phone number as IndianICSE. CBTE’s website (technicalcouncil.ac.in) even claims to follow the NCERT syllabus. A ‘Whois Lookup’ reveals that the website’s owner is Pawiter Singh, who the Delhi Police (East District) had arrested for the same scam in 2014. Pawiter is registered as a resident of Phillaur in Jalandhar and his phone number (registered with the domain host) went unanswered. Surprisingly, the website had been updated: it was renewed last on October 2016. This means that the scam is still running.

In the IndianICSE probe, the police suspect Pawiter’s involvement in running the new racket. IndianICSE website is registered to a Handeep Rai of And­hra Pradesh, with a fictitious phone number and an e-mail ID—punjabvirsa366@gmail.com.