Mewar univ office asst held in fake degree case

Jaipur: Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) Friday said it arrested a Mewar University office assistant on May 27 for allegedly helping generate a forged post-graduate degree used to secure a government teaching job through the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) Lecturer (Hindi, School Education) Recruitment Examination-2022.

The accused has been identified as Virendra Singh. A court granted his custody remand till May 30 for interrogation.

According to ADG (SOG) Vishal Bansal, the case surfaced during verification of educational qualifications submitted by candidate Brahma Kumari, who had produced an MA (Hindi) degree purportedly issued by the university.

Verification by RPSC found that the degree had never been issued by the university.

Investigators alleged that Kumari submitted a false affidavit and used the forged degree to obtain appointment as a lecturer. A case was subsequently registered at Civil Lines police station in Ajmer on March 20, 2024.

During the probe, SOG found that Singh, then working as a filing assistant at the university, allegedly conspired with university officials, including president/pro-president Kaushal Kishore Chandrul, Dhwaj Kirti Sharma, deputy controller of examinations Sushil Kumar Sharma and office assistant Rajesh Singh Ranawat, to generate the fake degree.

According to investigators, Singh allegedly used his personal email account to send the forged MA (Hindi) degree for printing at a Delhi-based press.

Police said the degree was later sent to the university, where it was allegedly signed by multiple officials before being handed over to the candidate.

Officials said the accused had previously been arrested in another fake degree case registered at Civil Lines police station, Ajmer, and was also arrested in a separate case registered in Gujarat in 2023.

With the latest arrest, the number of accused held in the case has risen to 12, including the candidate who allegedly used the forged degree.