Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 4 : The Bulandshahr police have arrested three people for allegedly preparing and selling counterfeit degree certificates and marksheets purportedly from various private universities, police said. The racket, the police said, spanned multiple states, with the accused running an office in the Anupshahr area of Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr, as well as several other places in more than nine states. Their modus operandi involved enticing candidates with promises of guaranteed success in examinations. Those arrested have been identified as Devendra Singh and Dilip Singh, both residents of Dibai in Bulandshahr, and Rahul Simaiya from Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Shlok Kumar, said that the matter came to light after one Ravindra Kumar, a resident of Anupshahr, filed a complaint with the police on September 26. "The complainant alleged that his son had successfully cleared the Army examination and medical for the recruitment but during the final stage of document verification, his 12th class marksheet was found to be fake, which resulted in the cancellation of his selection," SSP Kumar added. The police then lodged a case and initiated an investigation into the matter. It was found that Kumar's son had cleared an open school examination which was organised by the criminal gang. They also operated a website under the name "Shreebalajiinstitute.org," which they used to display fake results to deceive their victims. They charged a fee ranging from Rs 25,000 to 50,000 for each counterfeit degree. "A total of 167 fake degree/marksheets have been recovered from the arrested individuals and it was found that they have duped hundreds of people. The gang sourced their victims' data from platforms such as 'Justdial' and through other websites frequently visited by candidates seeking admissions. They would contact these individuals and offer them admission in open learning courses, along with a guarantee of exam success," the SSP said. Police have recovered two laptops, 16 mobile phones, 22 ATM cards, a pen drive, a CPU, registers, stamps and letterheads of various private universities from the accused, SSP Kumar added. /IANS