Nearly 10 lakh fake NCERT books worth over Rs 9 crore seized in Uttarakhand

RUDRAPUR: Police in Uttarakhand's Rudrapur city have recovered approximately 10 lakh counterfeit NCERT books, worth over Rs 9 crore, officials said on Tuesday. Udham Singh Nagar SSP Ajay Ganapathy said that the operation, based on a tip-off from an informer, resulted in the recovery of 9.74 lakh fake books, estimated to be worth over Rs 9 crore.

He explained that on March 14 night, a 'canter' (light commercial vehicle) was intercepted near Anandam Resort; its driver informed the police that the vehicle was loaded with books and that they were being transported to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

During the subsequent investigation, the documents related to the books were found to be suspicious, and the driver also lacked a valid e-way bill (a mandatory digital document for transporting goods worth over Rs 50,000).

Suspecting something amiss, police subjected driver to interrogation, which ultimately exposed this massive fraud. Ganapathy further revealed that, acting on the driver's leads, a police team reached a warehouse located in Kiratpur Koleda in the district, where they discovered approximately 950,000 NCERT books.

NCERT books with fake inscription 'ACERT'

He mentioned that officials from the Education Department, who were summoned to the scene, also examined the books and confirmed them to be counterfeit. The SSP stated that following this discovery, the NCERT was notified of the matter; a team of officials from the organisation arrived here from Delhi on Monday to inspect the books.

The inspection revealed that the printing quality, paper, binding, and cover designs of the books did not meet NCERT standards; furthermore, instead of the authentic NCERT watermark, a fake inscription, "ACERT", had been created and used.

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974,085 fake NCERT books

In total, 974,085 fake books were recovered from the canter and the warehouse. Ganpati stated that, based on a report submitted by an NCERT team regarding the printing, distribution, and storage of books-conducted with the intent to deceive the general public-a case has been registered against Sandeep, who was operating the warehouse, and others.

The case has been filed under Sections 318(4), 336(3), 338, and 340(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as well as under the Copyright Act. The SSP added that a thorough investigation into this entire network is currently underway. Meanwhile, in Dehradun, Uttarakhand DGP Deepam Seth lauded the team responsible for unearthing this case and announced a cash reward of Rs 20,000 for them.