PRAYAGRAJ, Jan. 11 -- The alleged kingpin of an interstate gang that counterfeited bachelor's degree certificates of Ayurvedic medicine and surgery courses offered by several institutions in UP and other states, was arrested in the Kareli area here late on Friday night, police said. Mohammad Taruq was arrested late Friday night following a raid at Savitribai Phule Medical Research Centre, which is owned by him, police added. During the raid, the Special Task Force (STF) recovered 68 forged marksheets and degrees of several medical colleges, along with a computer, pen drive and a mobile phone. Investigators said Taruq used fake degrees in his and his wife's names to run the clinic. After the arrest, the accused was handed over to the Kareli police station, where a case has been registered, they added. The racket came to light after the death of a patient at a clinic run by one Brahmanand, a resident of Bihasda under Jigna police station in Mirzapur district, which led to a public outrage. Subsequent verification confirmed that Brahmanand's BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) degree was fake. Brahmanand later submitted a written complaint to the STF seeking an investigation. During the probe, the STF found that Taruq, a resident of GTB Nagar in Kareli, was involved in preparing forged BAMS marksheets and degrees of various medical institutions across Uttar Pradesh and other states, and earned lakhs of rupees. Acting on this information, the STF conducted a late-night raid on his clinic on Friday. During interrogation, Mohd Taruq confessed that he had taken Rs.6 lakh from Brahmanand and provided him with a fake BAMS marksheet and degree in the name of Shivalik Ayurvedic Medical College, Bizerwa, Azamgarh, affiliated with Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University, Jaunpur. He also admitted to supplying fake marksheets and degrees to several others in the past, charging between Rs.6 lakh and Rs.10 lakh per person, police officials shared. Further investigation revealed that Taruq had also created fake marksheets and certificates in the names of himself and his wife, Rashida Parveen, purportedly issued by the Uttarakhand Ayurvedic University, Dehradun, and was running the clinic on that basis....