The gang was trapped when they went to deliver fake certificates near Maratha Mandir cinema. Police have recovered around 1,100 forged documents, including School Leaving Certificates, HSC/SSC mark lists, diplomas of engineering/technical institutes of various colleges in the country like the Indian Institute of Maritime Studies, Government of Republic of Panama and Liberia, the Shipping Corporation of India and the Mumbai Port Trust. Around 22 rubber stamps of various institutions, five rubber stamps of government agencies, six ink pads, three metal press embossing devices of different institutes, a computer, printer and a typewriter have also been recovered.

The names of the accused are: Manoj Ganesh Biswas (38), Pramod Birdev Gupta (33), Ganesh alias Babloo Nitai Patra (36), Hari JivanAcharaya (35), Muttu Kumar Subbaiya Tevar (30), Jitendra Devsi Shah (24), and Lawrence Michael (45). While the first four directly forged various certificates, Tevar and Shah are professional typists while Lawrence is an expert computer operator.

The forgers used to charge anything between Rs 1,000 to Rs 15,000 depending on the importance of the certificate and the risk involved in the forgery. According to crime branch officials, the gang members have sold around 4,000 fake certificates last year. A manhunt for the brain behind the scheme, Shiv Kumar Das and his associates Sunil Malik and Gopal Bhattacharya, has also been launched.