Indian student who falsified records for admission in US to reach India under plea deal

As reported earlier, a student from India named Aryan Anand was arrested in the US for falsifying documents to secure admission to Lehigh University. He had successfully secured admission to this university but later revealed his deeds on a Reddit post and explained how he forged documents, after which it was investigated and found to be true.

Study in US: Aryan Anand is an Indian student who went to the US to complete his higher studies. He was caught through a Reddit post for submitting fake and falsified documents to get admission to the private US research university Lehigh University in Pennsylvania for the 2023-2024 academic year.

‘The Brown and White’ is Lehigh University's student newspaper which published on June 25 about the incident. The article said that as part of his conspiracy, apart from fabricated documents, he had also faked his father's death to get a scholarship.

When he revealed all this on a Reddit post, an investigation was done on his claim and it was found to be true. On April 30, a criminal complaint was filed against the Indian student by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for theft by deception, forgery, theft of services, and tampering with records or identification. Later he got arrested for these charges.

Aryan Anand's Reddit Post Details

He had titled the post as "I have built my life and career on LIES and FRAUD". He mentioned in the post that he had created a fake email address - principal@schoolname.com for submitting his application, falsified tax documentation, submitted a fake death certificate of his father to get financial aid, created a false “Senior School Certificate Examination” and altered his secondary school year 1-3 transcripts.

“All for the purpose of securing admission and financial aid to attend a university in the United States,” reads his Reddit post.

Plea deal details

As part of this deal, he was sentenced to one to three months in Northampton County Prison. Lehigh chose not to seek restitution of about $85,000 but Anand will be returned to India.

"The criminal complaint revealed the thread was authored by someone with the username “u/transportationOK4728,” and “the creator was following only one University group of Reddit and that University was Lehigh University," reads the ‘The Brown and White’ post.

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