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Rajasthan:  A private university in Rajasthan's Churu is facing an investigation for allegedly issuing over 43,000 fake and backdated degrees of courses for which it did not even have an accreditation. The alleged fake degree scam perpetrated by Om Prakash Jogender Singh (OPJS) University is currently under the scanner of Rajasthan Police's Special Investigation Group (SOG). All degrees issued by the university for such courses since its inception in 2013 are being probed by the agency.

The scam was revealed in April when 1,300 applicants submitted degrees from OPJS University for the physical training instructor (PTI) exam 2022. However, according to norms, the university was not allowed to enrol and issue such a large number of degrees as the course received accreditation only in 2016 and just for 100 seats. Moreover, according to the eligibility criteria for the Rajasthan PTI 2022 exam, only students enrolled before 2020 could apply for the post.

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"The university could not have issued so many genuine degrees," a police officer said as reported by NDTV.

Police have already arrested the founder-owner of OPJS University, Joginder Singh Dalal, for his alleged part in the fake degree scam. Dalal's involvement surfaced as police were probing paper leaks and entrance exam malpractices.

According to NDTV, Dalal also issued backdated degrees to the candidates requiring graduation certificates for visa applications. Police launched the probe after multiple complaints were received from several students.

The university has issued 708 PhDs, 8,861 engineering degrees and 1,640 degrees in physical education since the start in 2013, DIG (SOG) Paris Deshmukh said.

Police suspect that these fake degrees were used by the candidates for applying to over 4500 government jobs, including the PTI exam.

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"The university has a staff of fewer than 30 employees. With such limited numbers, it is not possible to run a university," said Deshmukh as quoted by NDTV.

On June 24, the Rajasthan Higher Education Department released an order to cease new admissions for all courses at the university. Previously, in December of the previous year, the University Grants Commission had prohibited the university from accepting students into any PhD programs.