At 1.03 pm on February 23, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, US received an email titled “Urgent Report of Admission Fraud – Seeking Immediate Investigation”.
Advertisement“A lot of them were random posts, but in two of them, I noticed he mentioned Lehigh University.
He had also posted a photograph of a university, which via reverse image search I realised was also of Lehigh University.
Pursuant to the condition that he return to India… Lehigh University did not request restitution, which would have totaled approximately $85,000.
AdvertisementWhen contacted, the university said, “Lehigh revoked his status as a student and his admission was rescinded.”
At 1.03 pm on February 23, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, US received an email titled “Urgent Report of Admission Fraud – Seeking Immediate Investigation”. The short email would set off a chain of events that would ultimately end in the arrest of a 19-year-old from India for allegedly duping the prestigious varsity and securing admission, alongside a scholarship of $85,000.
The student, Aryan Anand, would have gotten away with it too, had it not been for an anonymous post by him on Reddit, and another 19-year-old from Faridabad who pieced together the alleged fraud. Anand, a computer science student, was arrested on April 30, and charged with forgery, tampering with records or identification, theft by deception, and theft of services.
A spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations in the US told The Indian Express, “On June 12, Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested Anand based on this criminality and an immigration judge issued a removal order on June 24. ERO continues to hold Anand pending his removal from the United States.”
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It was around 3 am on February 23 that Anand posted on a subreddit called Btechtards, which has over 50,000 members: “I have built my life and career on LIES and FRAUD.” In it, he referred to having fabricated admission paperwork, altered his grades, and even made a fake death certificate of his father to secure an “aid package” at a university.
The post stated that he scored 58% in Class 12, and he “edited that” to 91%. “I just wanted freedom at any cost, and if I could go to college without even spending a penny of my parents’ money, only then I could get that,” the post read.
Just a day earlier, the whistleblower had joined the subreddit as a moderator. “When I read his post, it felt unbelievable at first. This was either one of the most elaborate frauds committed on an institution or fiction,” the teen, who did not wish to be identified, told The Indian Express. He is currently pursuing B.Tech in Computer Science at a reputed institute in India.
Given that the post was anonymous and didn’t disclose details of the university, the teenager started going through past posts Anand had made from his anonymous Reddit account – u/TransportationOk4728.
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“A lot of them were random posts, but in two of them, I noticed he mentioned Lehigh University. He had also posted a photograph of a university, which via reverse image search I realised was also of Lehigh University. I also discovered that the only university community he followed on Reddit was Lehigh,” he said.
In his email to the university hours later, he wrote: “I serve as the moderator for the subreddit r/Btechtards. I am reaching out to bring to your attention a concerning post recently shared on our platform, which provides comprehensive details regarding an alleged case of admission fraud involving an Indian student… I will attach all the screenshots, which I believe will be enough for the concerned authorities to figure out who the student is.”
Asked why he wrote the email, he told The Indian Express, “His post was horrifying… the fact that he faked his father’s death… I have been a JEE aspirant myself. I have seen how hard people work for the SAT and to get admission to universities abroad. Here this guy was proudly boasting about his fraud… It felt like the morally right thing to do.”
A month passed, and on March 18, he heard back from Detective David Kokinda from the Lehigh University Campus Police Division. Kokinda requested “the exact date of the post” and inquired if the teen would be available for a phone call. The two got on a 15-minute video call around midnight on March 20.
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According to a complaint filed by the campus police division with the District Attorney’s office in Northampton, the university had pieced together circumstantial evidence to confirm Anand was the one who made the post. Since the post specified he moved to the US and joined the varsity in August 2023, officers figured he was a first-year student. He also wrote that his roommate at the university was involved with a fraternity.
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At the time, Lehigh had only one first-year international student from India on full scholarship. “That student’s name is Aryan Anand. He has a roommate who is in an officially recognised fraternity,” the copy of the complaint filed with the DA’s office reads.
The university investigation also found that the Reddit account was created using the email address “[email protected]”. It had also been accessed from the Lehigh network from Anand’s account, ara327.
The university also wrote in its complaint that Anand had attended Ruby Children Senior Secondary School in Kota, Rajasthan.
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The Indian Express reached out to the school to learn that school officials have not been contacted about the case so far. School records show he completed Class 10 from a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Hyderabad, and scored 538 out of 600 in his Board exams. He completed Class 11 from a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Kanpur and his permanent address is in Chandigarh. In class 11, he scored a C1 grade, with 58%.
A visit to the Chandigarh address listed in school records led to a dead-end. According to residents at the colony, meant for Indian Air Force employees, Anand or his family did not reside there.
The university’s complaint also states that the “metadata of (his father’s) death certificate”, which got him the scholarship, “indicates the document was altered on the ‘iLovePDF’ webpage”. According to police, Anand has admitted that his father is alive and living in India.
A press release from the Northampton County District Attorney’s office, dated June 24, reads that Anand “entered a negotiated plea of guilty to one count of forgery. Pursuant to the condition that he return to India… Lehigh University did not request restitution, which would have totaled approximately $85,000. As a condition of his sentence, Anand was released to the custody of the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement”.
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When contacted, the university said, “Lehigh revoked his status as a student and his admission was rescinded.”
