Dozens of Northwestern students have been questioned in connection with a massive fake ID ring based at the University of Georgia, according to officials.

The operation came to light after a Clarke County, Ga., grand jury indicted 20 students earlier this month, including a recent Northwestern graduate.

Arvind Sekar (Weinberg ’13) was the ring’s middleman in Evanston, doling out fake IDs to 38 students between April and September 2011, according to court records. He faces nine felony counts of distribution of false documents.

UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said Sekar was the “conduit” between UGA and NU. Two roommates in Georgia have been charged with heading the ring and distributing possibly thousands of fake IDs to college students across the country for between $50 and $100 apiece.

After seizing computer files in Athens, Ga., UGA police were able to “get to the top of the food chain and work our way back” to the fake IDs in Evanston, Williamson said. Sekar went to high school with others tied to the operation.

UGA police notified NU of their investigation in November 2011, according to a University spokesman. Starting in January 2012, University Police worked with UGA investigators to interview 47 NU students, leading to the recovery of 12 fake IDs and the criminal charges against Sekar.

Williamson said authorities asked NU students to tell them all they knew about the ring and hand over their fake ID.

“If they did that, we didn’t look at any type of charges,” Williamson added.

Williamson said authorities are “under no illusion” that they caught every student with a fake ID but did enough to disrupt a “fairly successful operation.”

Sekar declined to comment Tuesday.

Summer editor Patrick Svitek can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/PatrickSvitek.