Mastermind of Mewar University Fake Degree Racket Arrested After Six Months on the Run

Rajasthan's Special Operations Group nabs fugitive in Ghaziabad; suspect remanded in police custody until 14 May

Ajmer: Rajasthan's Special Operations Group (SOG) has arrested the alleged mastermind behind a fraudulent degree and marksheet racket operating in the name of Mewar University, scoring a significant breakthrough in a case that has rattled the state's education and public recruitment sectors.

Virendra Singh, the prime accused, was apprehended from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on 10 May after evading authorities for six months. During his time as a fugitive, he had kept his mobile phone switched off to frustrate investigators tracking his location. SOG officers had maintained close surveillance of his movements and whereabouts over an extended period, eventually acting on technical intelligence to detain him.

Singh was produced before Additional District and Sessions Judge Dr Renu Shrivastava on Monday. The court accepted an application from Special Public Prosecutor Shashi Prakash Indauria, who argued that the accused needed to be questioned at multiple locations including Ghaziabad, Delhi, and elsewhere. Singh was accordingly remanded to SOG custody until 14 May.

According to investigators, Singh is a key figure in a network that forged degrees and academic marksheets in the name of Mewar University, Gangrar, in Chittorgarh district. Initial enquiries suggest the racket's reach extends well beyond Rajasthan, with operations spanning Delhi-NCR and several other states. Authorities are now working to establish how many candidates received fraudulent documents and to identify all those involved in the conspiracy.

The case first came to light when two female candidates from Sanchore — Brahma Kumari and Kamala Kumari — were found to have submitted forged degrees whilst appearing in the Rajasthan Public Service Commission's (RPSC) School Lecturer Recruitment Examination 2022. The RPSC lodged two separate complaints at Civil Lines police station, triggering an SOG investigation.

Since then, the SOG has arrested approximately a dozen individuals in connection with the case, including the two candidates, a government schoolteacher by the name of Dalpat Singh, Dr Suresh Bishnoi, and former Dean Dhwaj Kirti Sharma. Investigators expect that questioning Virendra Singh will yield further disclosures about the technical methods used to produce the counterfeit documents and the full extent of the network.