Excerpts from Times of India, March 17, 2007

7/11 BLASTS PROBE
Accused used fake certs for jobs
Nitasha Natu I TNN

Mumbai: Investigators probing the 7/11 train blasts case have found that two accused, brothers Muzzamil Shaikh and Rahil Ata-Ur-Rehman Shaikh, used fake certificates from an institute in UP to get jobs as computer engineers. The institute, Bhartiya Shiksha Parishad (BSP), is not recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

While Muzammil is behind bars, Rahil is wanted in the case and is believed to be holed up in the UK. The institute's director, Vijay Agrawal (54), who claims to hold a PhD, is only a Std IX passout. He was arrested earlier this month and the ATS is now trying to find out the other beneficiaries of the “fake degrees”.

According to ATS sleuths, Rahil was employed as a computer engineer in Pune in 2003 with one of India's leading top 25 IT company (rated by NASSCOM) listed on both NSE and BSE. He was later sent to UK. In the past, he has also worked in Dubai.“Rahil's involvement is suspected in receiving hawala money sent by Pakistan-based LeT member Azam Cheema. We were going through Rahil's documents with his employers in Pune when we found that he had passed a certificate course in computers from BSP,” said an official. The course was Bachelors of Science Program (BSc Computers) and was used by Rahil to get a respectable job to avoid suspicion, the official added.

Investigators also found that an institute, Edmund Coaching Institute, had given Rahil's referral to BSP. "Rahil was said to have sat for an exam at the Andheri centre of the institute. When our team visited the address, no such institute was found," said the official.

A trip to BSP at Lucknow revealed that the institute offered a variety of certificate courses from Bachelors in Commerce, Arts, Education, Science to Masters in Law. Correspondence with the UGC revealed that the institute was not a central, state or deemed university and was not empowered to give any degrees.
“Our team found no records on Rahil and Muzammil other than enrolment registers with their names. The certificates had been awarded to the duo in 1996-97 while the entries in the register were made as recently as 2005,” the official said.

The ATS then started questioning Agrawal. “He claimed to hold a PhD from the Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Prayag, which itself is not recognised by the UGC,” the official said.

nitasha.natu@timesgroup.com