Private university in Rajasthan's Churu under lens for issuing over 43,000 fake degrees

Jaipur: A private university in Rajasthan's Churu has come under scanner for issuing around 43,409 fake degrees to aspirants applying for government jobs.

Rajasthan Special Operation Group (SOG) stumbled upon the scam being run in the university while investigating the malpractices in paper leaks and college entrance exams.

The SOG is investigating the Om Prakash Joginder Singh University (OPJS) University in Churu for allegedly issuing fake and backdated degrees to candidates applying for the post of physical training instructor (PTI).

The SOG team gauged something was wrong when 1,300 applicants applied for the year 2022 PTI exam with degrees from the same university. Ironically, the course at the university received accreditation only in 2016 and that too for 100 seats. And, only students enrolled before 2020 were eligible to apply for the 2022 PTI exam.

It was clear that the University could not have issued so many degrees to candidates when there were only 100 seats and also when the university started operating in 2013. The SOG found conclusive evidence of irregularities in the PTI recruitment exam of 2022.

The arrest of the University owner Joginder Singh Dalal led to more startling revelations that it had issued backdated degrees for courses like BEd and BPEd (physical education), MSc agricultural degrees without proper accreditation. They even issued fake certificates for those who required the degrees for visa applications. When police demanded old records, the university claimed that many records were destroyed in a fire in December 2019.

The university has awarded 708 fake PhDs, 8,861 engineering degrees and 1,640 fake degrees in physical education since 2013, SOG officials said.

Rajasthan Higher Education department has stayed admission to the university for all courses on June 24. With a staff of just 30, SOG found that it was impossible to run so many courses including PhDs.

Earlier the University Grants Commission barred the university from enrolling PhD scholars.