7 held for forging certificates of student

Nur Tabassum Sultana, a student of Dhanmondi Kamrunnessa Girl's High School, studied hard to pass both her JSC and SSC examinations from the Dhaka Education Board.

When she was about to register for her HSC exams, she found that all her certificates with the education board had someone else's name on them.

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The education board's result archive online was also showing her certificate with her name, her parents' names and date of birth all changed.

Following the incident, the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Friday arrested seven people, including a lower-rank employee of the education board, said AKM Hafiz Akhter, additional commissioner (DB) of the DMP, at press briefing in DMP's Media Centre yesterday.

Photo: Collected

The fraudulent group, including some corrupt officials of the education board, forged the student's certificates and put in another student's name and details for Tk 3.5 lakh, investigators said.

The arrestees are Noor Rimty, the student who faked her certificate, her uncle Jamal Hossain, AKM Mostafa Kamal, who runs a coaching centre, and education board-based brokers -- Maruf, Faruk Ahmed, Mahbub Alam and Abed Ali.

"After studying hard for 10 years, the student found all certificates have been stolen. To fake a single certificate, the fraudulent racket faked her JSC, SSC and birth certificates," said the DB official.

According to the preliminary interrogation, Noor Rimty participated in the SSC examinations held in 2019, from City Model College, but failed in two subjects.

"She was in need of an SSC certificate to go to Italy. When she told her uncle Jamal Hossain, he contacted AKM Mostafa Kamal, to help them fake a certificate and offered to pay Tk 3.5 lakh."

Mostafa then contacted brokers Maruf, Mahbub Alam, Faruk Ahmed and Abed Ali.

"Of them, Maruf is a lower-rank employee of the education board and also a personal assistant of a CBA leader," he said.

He said the racket searched for a name close to "Nur" and picked Nur Tabassum. They collected all of Nur Tabassum and applied to the education board to change the name and details.

"They then took down JSC, SSC certificates of Nur Tabassum and uploaded them again on the website with the name and other necessary information changed in exchange for money."

Ashrafullah, additional deputy commissioner (Web-based Crime) at the DB's Cyber and Special Crime, told The Daily Star the racket advised Noor Rimty to apply to the education board saying it got her name and birth date wrong in the certificate and they have to be "corrected".

The changes were then made with the board's verification, adding that they would investigate whether any higher official of Dhaka Education Board is involved.

Ashrafullah said this racket is not only involved in fraudulent activities with this board, but has connections with other boards too.

"We got information that Mostafa Kamal is involved with underhand dealings to admit students at various schools and colleges," he said, adding that he is also involved with private and national university certificate forgery.

Kamal was a college teacher in Mymensingh and now runs a coaching centre in Dhaka.

Talking to reporters, the student Nur Tabassum said she got to know about her certificates being faked after she got an sms on August 21 for HSC registration.

"I saw my name and parents' names have been changed. When I checked it on the education board's website, I saw all my information changed."

Her mother Rokeya Sultana said they filed a case with Dhanmondi Police Station under the Digital Security Act.