The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police busted a fake certificate-making factory and arrested a government employee and his associate from Agargaon area in the capital on Monday.
The arrestees were identified as AKM Shamsuzzaman, senior system analyst of Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB), and his associate Faisal Hossain.
The arrests were made on Monday following a report published in The Bangladesh Post newspaper on March 30.
Moshiur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Lalbagh Division of DB police, said, “We had information that a gang in the capital has been producing fake certificates and mark-sheets for a long time. Acting on a tip-off, we conducted drives to two separate houses in South Pirerbag in Mirpur and Agargaon areas of the capital.”
“We arrested Shamsuzzaman, who is the senior system analyst of BTEB, with a large number of illegal and fake certificates and all equipment for making certificates,” the police officer, who led the operation, said.
During the arrests, multiple computers, laptops, printers, thousands of original certificates and blank copies of marksheets stolen from Technical Education Board, hundreds of fabricated certificates and transcripts, biodata, important documents, etc., were recovered from their custody in two nearby houses.
“He had been selling technical education board certificates for Tk 30,000 to Tk 50,000 for a long time.”
The police officer also said as the BTEB server was under his control, he quickly uploaded the fake result to the service. In this way, the authenticity of these certificates can also be found online.
He even stole the original paper from the education board to print certificates. Later, certificates were printed on those papers and sold to specific students.
“Earlier, we informed the board concerned of the matter, but they didn’t pay any heed. Rather, they sheltered this kind of official,” said the police official.
Arrested Shamsuzzaman said, “We came to the post six months ago in September last year. When someone requests us, we do it.”
Detective Branch (DB) chief Mohammad Harun-Or-Rashid said, “We set up traps and appointed an ADC to nab the cycle. The ADC also brought a certificate from the gang spending Tk 2,5000.”
“After getting money, he made a certificate and uploaded it online within 10 minutes,” he added.
The said, “We are investigating how many people are involved with the gang. Besides, we are investigating who is getting a share of the money.”
In the last few years, more than five thousand original certificates and mark sheets have been made and handed over to people with all these computers, printers, and laptops. At the same time, the certificates sold to people have been uploaded to the Bangladesh Technical Education Board website using official passwords and authorisations.
AKM Shamsuzzaman's house is in Dinajpur. He Joined Bangladesh Technical Education Board as System Analyst in 2009. Currently his position is senior system analyst.
Shamsuzzaman has been doing these mark sheets and certificates, making business by using some people in his office and some brokers from outside. Brokers sometimes advertise on Facebook and other social media that the original certificates and mark sheets they provide will be verified online.
In 2017, he was suspended for allegedly selling mark sheet certificates but was reinstated by the High Court. During interrogation, he admitted that he had sold more than five thousand certificates and mark sheets at different times.
