PETALING JAYA: A man and a woman were charged at the magisterate’s court today with forging an accreditation certificate and issuing a forged document, respectively.
The duo, however, pleaded not guilty to the offences when the charges were read to them separately before magistrate Nor Ariffin Hisham.
V. Suresh, 36, was charged with forging Open University Malaysia’s (OUM) degree certificate with intent to cheat for B. Radha Devi to use it to further her master’s degree at City University.
The project manager allegedly committed the offence at Sri Indah Apartment, Jalan Sungai Besi, in June.
The offence falls under Section 465 of the Penal Code which carries maximum two years’ imprisonment or shall also be liable to a fine or both upon conviction.
Radha Devi was charged with using as genuine a forged OUM degree certificate with intent to deceive City University for her to continue her studies in a master’s degree in June.
She was charged under Section 471 of the Penal Code for using as genuine a forged document, an offence punishable under Section 465 of the same Code.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohammed Firdaous Mohamad Idris when prosecuting both cases asked the court to imposed RM5,000 bail for each accused.
Counsel Datuk Suraj Singh for Suresh and M. K. Morthy for Radha Devi pleaded for minimum bail stating that both of them needed to support their families.
The court set bail at RM3,000 with one surety each and fixed Oct 9 for mention.
After the proceedings sources told reporters that police had identified a syndicate selling fake accreditation certificates of several public and private universities in the country.
Police believed that the syndicate has been operating for several years and has links to hundreds of customers nationwide.
“We received a report from a local university on the discovery of dubious academic certificates produced by one of their candidates who wanted to further his studies in a master’s degree.
“Our investigation revealed that the certificate was fake and we have detained a woman to assist our probe which lead to the arrest of a man believed to be the supplier of the certificates.
“We believe the certificates are sold for more than RM2,000 depending on the level of the accreditation,” the source said.