Rajasthan university under police radar for issuing over 40,000 fake degrees

Om Parkash Jogender Singh (OPJS) University in Churu is under radar of Rajasthan police's special operations group (SOG) for allegedly issuing fake and backdated degrees for courses that the private institution did not have accreditation for. SOG is examining all 43,409 degrees issued since the university's inception in 2013, reported ToI.

As per the report, the university under scrunity issued backdated degrees for BEd and BPEd (physical education) programmes before receiving accreditation and awarded MSc agriculture degrees without proper authorisation, said SOG sources to ToI.

In the case of issuing fake desgrees, a probe began six days after the arrest of the university's founder-owner, Joginder Singh Dalal, for his alleged role in the scam. SOG's inquiry into paper leaks and malpractices in college entrance and govt exams led to Dalal.


What does the initial probe entails?
The case dates back to July 5 when SOG arrested Dalal, along with former chairperson Sarita Karwasra and former registrar Jitendra Yadav. Preliminary investigations suggest Dalal issued backdated degrees to those requiring graduation certificates for visa applications, reported ToI.

"A detailed probe into the fake-degree scam was launched after allegations surfaced that the university was issuing backdated degrees and certificates, some even before the varsity received relevant accreditation for running the courses," ADGP (SOG) VK Singh said.

Since 2013, the university has awarded 708 PhDs, 8,861 engineering degrees, and 1,640 degrees in physical education, among others, DIG (SOG) Paris Deshmukh said. He added that police discovered "conclusive evidence" of irregularities in the physical training instructor (PTI) recruitment exam of 2022, where more than 1,300 applicants claimed to have completed the course from OPJS, despite the varsity being accredited for only 100 seats since 2016. Only students enrolled before 2020 were eligible for the PTI 2022 exam.

Although police clarified that not all 43,409 degrees under scrutiny, including PhDs, have been deemed "fake", they have not ruled out irregularities in each course. Police suspected candidates obtained backdated degrees to apply for govt jobs, including the PTI exam aimed to fill about 4,500 vacancies.

"The university has a salaried staff of fewer than 30, including eight to nine class-4 employees. With such limited numbers, it is not possible to run a university," Deshmukh said. A divisional commissioner-led inquiry questioned the university's exam process. When police requested old records, Dalal claimed the documents were destroyed in a Dec 2019 fire, the ToI report cliamed quoting its sources.

"We have informed the education department and asked them to re-examine degrees of all candidates who cleared the PTI exam. Degrees issued for other courses are also under the scanner. The education department is mandated to act against the university," an official said.

On June 24, Rajasthan higher education department issued an order to halt new admissions to all courses at OPJS following an investigation that found irregularities in the degrees issued. Prior to that, UGC barred OPJS from enrolling scholars in all PhD programmes in Dec last year.

(with ToI inputs)