Deported Telangana student unmasks education scam

The RGIA police detained the MD of Hyderabad-based overseas education consultancy and a student on charges of their involvement in a suspected fake certificate racket being used to get students admitted into foreign universities.

Police quoted 28-year-old Pakiru Gopal Reddy, a student from Nalgonda district, as having been deported from Dallas Airport, US, and brought back to Hyderabad, where immigration authorities detected irregularities in his academic certificates. He revealed during interrogation that he had secured fake degree certificates from Dhanalaxmi Overseas Consultancy at Teachers Colony, BN Reddy Nagar.

Investigations established that Kathoj Ashok (29), MD of the consultancy and also a native of Nalgonda, had been operating the racket for five years. In 2021, he came in contact with a forger from Kerala who provided him with fake degrees, experience letters and bank statements. 

Ashok would charge students between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1 lakh for one fake degree, paying Rs 30,000 per document to his Kerala contact.

Gopal met Ashok in August 2021 and obtained fake BSc (Computer Science) certificates allegedly issued by Madurai Kamaraj University, indicating completion between 2015 and 2018. These he used to get into Webster University in the US, paid USD 28,000 (Rs 22 lakh) as tuition fee and attended for 15 months. But on a recent trip back to the US, immigration officials detected that his student status was inactive in the SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) database and deported him.

Authorities confirmed he had been given the visa on forged credentials. Further investigation yielded that Ashok had assisted close to 15 students in gaining foreign admissions with forged documents.