THANE: The crime branch of Thane police busted a racket involving sale of fake degrees and arrested five people. One of them is the director of a paramedical and pharmacy college in Thane who allegedly helped the other accused misuse forged degrees to secure licences to run medical shops.The accused, Dr Purshottam Tahilramani, heads the NETT paramedical college located on Kolshet Road, is the alleged kingpin of the racket, the police said. “This seems to the just the tip of an ice-berg and we suspect this racket is deep-rooted in parts of the state,” said an officer.The other accused who got fake pharmacy degrees are Arvind Bhat, Raju Yadav, Budharam Ajeniya and Balwantsingh Chouhan, said the police.Assistant inspector Sandeep Bagul had got a tip-off from an informer that four medical shops in Thane were being run by the accused who had got licences based on fake SSC, HSC and D Pharm or B Pharm degrees to get a licence to run the pharmacies and the accused had no working knowledge of medicines.“They secured degrees from the college run by Tahilramani by paying anything from a few thousands to several lakhs,” said Deepak Deoraj, deputy commissioner of police (crime).The police said that the accused have confessed that they secured the fake certificates from Tahilramani.“Yadav paid Rs 1.50 lakh to Tahilramani and secured HSC certificate and fake D-pharm degree of Sunrise University,” said an officer.After securing relevant set of fake documents of degrees, the four pharmacists applied to Maharasthra State Pharmacy Council and set up five medical shops in the city.Besides Sunrise University, the accused forged SSC and HSC certificates of Delhi, Maharashtra as well as Uttar Pradesh education boards.The degrees or certificates were verified with the boards concerned which were found to be fake after which the accused were rounded up and arrested, said Deoraj.The police said that many more people could be involved in the racket. A case has been registered at Kapurbawdi police station. The accused have been sent to police custody.An officer said that in the absence of a qualified pharmacist, there are chances that incorrect medicines are sold which can endanger lives of patients. “In this case, the accused are not at all qualified. They have not even passed SSC or HSC and still got a pharmacist degree,” said an officer.

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