An inquiry is underway into claims that a private university in Rajasthan issued phony retroactive degrees for courses for which it lacked accreditation. There are 43409 purportedly bogus degrees.
Since the university's founding in 2013, Om Prakash Jogender Singh (OPJS) University in Churu has allegedly issued phony degrees. The Rajasthan Police Special Operation Group (SOG) is looking into this.
On April 8, the university came under fire after 1300 candidates for the 2022 physical training instructor (PTI) exam sent in their degrees. Only 100 seats in the university course were accredited in 2016. The PTI 2022 exam was only open to those who enrolled prior to 2020.
The police claimed that the university could not have awarded so many legitimate degrees.
This comes a few days after Joginder Singh Dalal, the university's founder and owner, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a scam.
Joginder Singh Dalal was the result of an investigation into paper leaks and irregularities in government and college entrance exams.
According to preliminary findings, the founder of the university awarded backdated degrees to students who needed graduation certificates to apply for visas.
The investigation was also prompted by several student complaints.
According to DIG (SOG) Paris Deshmukh, since 2013, the university has awarded 1640 degrees in physical education, 8861 degrees in engineering, and 708 PhDs.
Police suspect that applicants used backdated degrees to apply for government jobs—including the 4500 positions that the PTI exam was designed to fill.
There are less than thirty workers at the university. One cannot manage a university with such a small enrollment, Mr. Deshmukh remarked.
The Rajasthan Higher Education Department issued an order on June 24 to stop accepting new students for any kind of university course.
Prior to this, in December of last year, the University Grants Commission prohibited the university from accepting students into any PhD program.