Khaberni - In a shocking incident that shook India and raised international concerns, the Indian police uncovered the largest fraud operation in the country’s history, as an organized criminal network managed to forge more than one million university and training certificates in sensitive fields such as medicine, nursing, engineering, aviation, and fire safety.
The case began by chance in the city of Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, during a routine inspection of a fertilizer store, where officers noticed suspicions about the manager's certificate, which turned out to be completely forged. The investigation led to the dismantling of a large network that had been operating for two years under the facade of "Jawaharlal Nehru Technical Center," which mimics the name of the real Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University for deception.
The network issued about 500 types of forged certificates, including professional fake seals and holograms for 28 different universities, as the police found paper records for more than 2,400 certificates, with estimates indicating that the total number exceeds one million, some of which were used for employment abroad.
According to Indian authorities, the network was selling the certificates, with the cost of a single certificate ranging between 75,000 to 150,000 Indian Rupees.
The operations extended to 11 Indian states, from Kerala and Tamil Nadu to Maharashtra and Delhi, and included secret printing presses and 155 distribution channels in Andhra Pradesh alone, operating under the guise of computer training institutes.
Seven key individuals, including Jambani Venkateswarlu (49 years old), the son of a former Indian Air Force employee, were arrested, charged with fraud and forgery under the Indian Penal Code provisions, and could face extended imprisonment for up to 7 years.
Sidharth Kushal, police chief of Prakasam district said: "We have thwarted a major operation at a national level. They were issuing forged certificates in nearly every field, which threatens safety in vital sectors such as medicine and aviation."
Now, investigations continue to uncover any collusion from employees of real universities, with concerns about the spread of forged certificates abroad, raising serious questions about the safety of doctors and engineers working in other countries.
