Shimla: Even after securing a major court order to confiscate properties linked to the Rs 387 crore fake degree racket at Manav Bharti University, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is still struggling to trace the full extent of assets amassed by fugitive accused Mandeep Rana, who continues to evade arrest.
In a significant development, the Special Court (PMLA) in Shimla on April 23 allowed the ED’s plea to confiscate two immovable properties belonging to Mandeep Rana, who was earlier declared a Fugitive Economic Offender on January 3, 2026.
The move is being seen as a strong legal push, but investigators admit the trail of money and properties is far from fully uncovered.
The ED probe, initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from multiple FIRs registered at Dharampur police station in Solan district.
The investigation exposed a deep-rooted conspiracy allegedly led by Raj Kumar Rana, along with his wife Ashoni Kanwar and son Mandeep Rana, to run a well-oiled network selling fake degrees in the name of Manav Bharti University.
Officials say the scale of the scam is staggering — proceeds of crime have been pegged at around Rs 387 crore. These funds were allegedly laundered through a complex web of transactions and diverted into movable and immovable assets spread across multiple states.
So far, the ED has attached properties worth nearly Rs 200 crore, which have been confirmed by the adjudicating authority.
However, sources indicate that a significant portion of assets is still untraced, raising serious concerns about the depth and spread of the financial network built by the accused.
What is adding to the challenge is Mandeep Rana’s continued absence. Despite repeated summons and sustained efforts by the ED, he has neither joined the investigation nor submitted to the jurisdiction of Indian courts.
His deliberate evasion led to his declaration as a Fugitive Economic Offender under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018.
The latest confiscation order empowers authorities to permanently seize identified properties, with the court clearly stating that assets already attached under PMLA can be treated as proceeds of crime for confiscation under the FEO Act.
Officials say the order sends a clear warning that fleeing the country or dodging the law will not protect economic offenders. Yet, the ongoing struggle to identify the remaining assets underscores the challenges agencies face in dismantling such sprawling financial crimes.
With Rana still at large and a chunk of the money trail missing, the investigation is far from over.
ED officials maintain that efforts are on to track down the fugitive and uncover every asset linked to the scam, aiming to break the financial backbone of one of Himachal’s biggest education frauds.
Once projected as a hub of “quality education for rural youth,” Manav Bharti University is now under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate for what investigators suspect is a massive fake degree racket.
There is no course under the sun that this rogue university is not offering to the desperate 'students' , seeking degrees by hook or by crook, reveal education experts.
Established in 2009 under the Himachal Pradesh Private University Act and run by the Manav Bharti Charitable Trust, the university claims to uplift the poor through education, scholarships, and even charitable hospitals. This is how in the name of Charitable Trust the university is exploiting the youth, alleged academics.
But probe agencies allege a darker reality—degrees allegedly issued without proper study, exams, or attendance, with a network of middlemen and agents, including one Rana, facilitating the operation across states.
What was marketed as a new hope for underprivileged youth is now being seen as a trap that may have jeopardised thousands of careers.
What raises serious questions is the silence of regulators. Despite the ongoing probe, neither the University Grants Commission nor the state regulatory commission has suspended the university’s powers to award degrees under the UGC Act as ED has busted its fake degree racket, which is more criminal than the money made by Rana and his associates.
Even more troubling is the cloud over its accreditation by National Assessment and Accreditation Council, with critics asking how such an institution cleared quality checks in the first place.
The case is now snowballing into a larger debate on oversight failure, potential conflict of interest, and allegations that some private universities grease the system to secure approvals—leaving students to pay the ultimate price.
ED says further investigation is ongoing. The families and students who have genuinely got its degrees pin hope on ED and government regulator and UGC to bring all culprits to justice.
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