Fake degree scam: Himachal’s Manav Bharti University Registrar held

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, June 12

The Solan Police on Friday arrested Manav Bharti University (MBU) Registrar KK Singh in the fake degree scam. Singh was directed to join investigation and later arrested.

Additional SP Shiv Kumar Sharma said Singh worked as Deputy Registrar at the MBU from 2013 to 2015, and later as a Registrar.  

The 63-year-old Singh was presently working at the MBU’s sister concern Madhav University in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Sharma said Singh claimed that he was the MBU Registrar and the woman, Anupama Thakur, arrested by the police earlier, who had also claimed to be the Registrar, was the Deputy Registrar. The SP though said their claims were yet to be verified.

Sources said as per the probe, KK Singh hailed from Howrah district in West Bengal and claimed to be a 1983 batch Bachelor of Homeopathy Medicine from Bihar University.

Singh pursued MSc Anatomy from the MBU in 2009-2011, though the university was not authorised to run any such course.

This was the fourth arrest made by the Solan Police in the case which surfaced in March. 

Earlier, a data entry operator, an Assistant Registrar and another woman Registrar were arrested by the police.

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 case under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against the accused for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

The MBU Chairman, Rajkumar Rana, has applied for an anticipatory bail to the High Court and his plea is coming up for hearing on June 17.Notably, the HP Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission in its complaint has stated that 103 degrees/diplomas issued by the MBU were found to be fake.

The Commission had received a request from the Directorate of Higher Education on January 6, 2017, for verification of these degrees/diplomas issued by the university in various disciplines.

The issue was pursued with the MBU Registrar but the university management denied having issued these degrees/diplomas. The commission, however, had observed that the bare perusal of the degrees/diplomas made it evident that they had been issued by the university.

A request had then been made to the DGP in March this year to investigate the matter following which the CID was handed over its investigation and later a special investigations team headed by SP Solan was constituted to probe the matter.