Ludhiana: A couple charged with operating a fake CBSE senior secondary school with 600 students for five years is on the run. They allegedly outsourced final-year students to rival institutes to conceal the school's lack of credentials.
The Accused and Their Modus Operandi
Surinder Singla and his wife, Anita Singla, deceived Punjab's transient workers into trusting their school. The fraud was uncovered by a better-informed parent, Gurbakhsh Singh, a local factory owner who had enrolled his daughter in Class I at Global Sparks Convent International.
Discovery of the Scam
Inspired by a news report about a similar scam, Gurbakhsh Singh checked the official CBSE registry online and found the school missing from the database. When confronted, the school management claimed CBSE affiliation was pending. However, further investigation revealed the senior secondary school had been operating for five years without affiliation.
Outsourcing Students to Bypass Credentials
To bypass its lack of credentials, the school allegedly outsourced students of board classes X and XII to a different institute in secret, enabling them to sit for final examinations. Gurbakhsh Singh stated, "The illiterate, transient labourer majority of this area can't differentiate between an 'affiliated' school and one claiming it is 'to be affiliated'."
Failure of Authorities
The first complaint was filed with the district education office, but Gurbakhsh Singh claimed officials failed to act, and school authorities pressured him to drop the matter. According to the first-information report (FIR), when he approached the police, an inquiry officer summoned the accused to present academic records, but the couple failed to appear.
Digital Footprint and Current Status
The school does not operate an official website, maintaining only social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram. Calls to at least four contact numbers listed on those pages were switched off. The Ludhiana police have charged the couple with cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and launched a manhunt for them.
