In a significant development, the District Commissioner of Karimganj, Mridul Yadav, has informed the Assam government about the invalidation of an Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificate issued to Md. Mahbubul Haque, the Chancellor of University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM).

According to a letter addressed to the Principal Private Secretary to the Chief Minister, Yadav revealed that the OBC certificate, initially issued to Haque on August 24, 1992, was counter-signed by the then District Commissioner of Karimganj.

Upon reviewing the caste issue register, it was discovered that Haque's OBC certificate was cancelled on August 20, 1996, he said, adding that the cancellation order or certificate could not be located, but the register notes that Haque is neither Maimal nor from the Kiran community.

Consequently, his OBC status was officially withdrawn by the district administration as of August 1996, he said.

Reacting to the development, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated at a press conference, "Until now, we presumed that the USTM Chancellor was an educator. However, a report from the DC of Karimganj has revealed that he obtained an OBC certificate fraudulently, which was subsequently canceled by the then DC of Karimganj. How can someone with a fake OBC certificate be considered an educator?" 

He continued, "I won’t go into details, but he claimed to belong to the Kiran community to obtain the fake OBC certificate. Following complaints against him, the DC of Karimganj, after listening to all parties, canceled the certificate."

"According to the law, once the fake OBC certificate was discovered, a criminal case should have been filed. This was not done, but now, we are going to file an FIR,” he stressed.