Kerala fake degree scam accused widens net, arrested in Chennai

CHENNAI: Six months ago Mohammed Riyas (30) of Ayanavaram was in the midst of a political storm in Kerala when he was found to have supplied SFI leader Nikhil Thomas with forged degree certificates and marksheets of Chattisgarh-based Kalinga University. He was arrested then by the Kayamkulam police in Kerala.

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Turning to present-day, the accused has allegedly scaled up his activities by fabricating more educational certificates on a wider scale across states.

Mohammed Riyas got exposed last August, as Nikhil Thomas who did not clear BCom degree in Kayamkulam MSM College was shown as getting admitted for MCom in the same institute using a fabricated degree certificate in the name of Kalinga University, Chhattisgarh. The issue led Kerala police to land in Chennai and arrest Mohammed Riyas (30).

Coming out on bail, the Chennai-based document forger did not lie low but swung back into business apparently with additional vigour, this time joining hands with Maheshwaran who ran a fake university. Both of them complemented each other in taking the racket to the next level. His run was stopped on Thursday when city police arrested them for forging documents, some of them submitted to the US consulate.

While investigating a complaint from the US consulate of Chennai, the Forgery Investigation Wing of Central Crime Branch (CCB) of city police found how the history-sheeter was back on the prowl. The consulate officials raised an issue after a visa applicant submitted forged documents of Kalinga University (similar to what was done in the case of the SFI leader). The probe led them to a fake certificate manufacturing unit, using an alibi of ‘educational institute,’ in Villivakkam.

Chennai Police have so far arrested four persons in the case and seized over 500 fake certificates. Two of them are engineering graduates from Hyderabad-Rusheekesh Reddy (33) and Dhivakar Reddy (32)-apart from Mohammed Riyas and his associate Maheshwaran from Chennai.

“Riyas too is an engineering graduate. We will get more details about his racket when we get to interrogate him. He confessed to us that he was arrested by Kerala police in a similar case a few months ago,” a senior police officer told DT Next.

Police officers DT Next spoke to said that Riyas and his network would have had a longer run if one of the aspirants had not approached the US consulate with the fabricated documents, as there are strict verification protocols in place at consulates.

Apart from forged certificates of Kalinga University and the fake IISTR documents, the forgery investigation wing of city police also seized certificates in the name of Shine University, Swami Vivekananda Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education School.

“They have told us they have agents in Delhi and Hyderabad through whom they sell these certificates,” a senior police officer said.