The Uttar Pradesh Police have registered a first information report against Sachin Gupta, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sanjeev Gupta, for illegally printing duplicate National Council of Educational Research and Training books, News18 reported on Saturday. The police have seized books worth Rs 35 crore, six printing machines and arrested 12 people in connection with the case.
Police said Sachin Gupta was absconding and the scam took place in Meerut district. “Sachin Gupta is the owner of the warehouse at Achhonda in Partapur and the printing press at Mohkampur,” state’s special task force Deputy Superintendent of Police Brajesh Kumar Singh said. “He is absconding at the moment and efforts are being made to arrest him. Shortly after the raid, police officers spoke to Sachin over the phone and he said that he was coming with the papers of books, but did not come later and also switched off his mobile.”
Preliminary investigation revealed that the duplicate books were sent to neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttarakhand and Delhi, besides being used in Uttar Pradesh. Around 364 different types of fake NCERT books, mostly of mathematics, chemistry and physics, for classes 9 to 12, were found at the printing factory.
The police said that Gupta was also involved in the printing duplicate books of the Uttar Pradesh education board. It is not clear if any action was taken against him in this regard.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took a dig at the BJP over the incident and said that the saffron party, which was changing the National Education Policy, should give “moral education” to its leaders.
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