East Medinipur, 4 June (H.S.): Fake caste certificates of nine persons have been cancelled in Tamluk of East Medinipur district. As per information, complaints of caste certificates of many people from the Tamluk department had reached the state secretariat Navanna directly, on which an order was given to investigate and take action in the matter. After investigation, Tamluk Sub-divisional Officer Divyendu Majumdar has cancelled the caste certificates of nine persons. The administration claims that each of them had obtained caste certificates from the SDO office using fake documents. Allegedly, Prashant Maiti, Biplabkumar Pramanik, Putul Santara and Swapna Pal had made Scheduled Caste certificates by submitting fake documents. Similarly, Sheikh Aryan, Sonia Khatun, Ashdul Ali Khan and his brother Ashfaq Ali Khan and Anwara Begum had got OBC certificates made by submitting fake documents. Those certificates were issued from January to December 2021 from the office of the Tamluk Sub-Divisional office. This incident happened due to the documents not being verified properly. An investigation was conducted only after a complaint was lodged against some people. Then the real mystery came to light.

Moreover, such incidents have happened in Tamluk Subdivision earlier as well. On July 20, 2023, the Tamluk SDO had cancelled 108 certificates simultaneously. Of these, two were ST certificates, 22 were SC certificates and 84 were OBC certificates. In most of the cases, this trick was adopted to qualify in medical and engineering entrance examinations. The sub-divisional officer had lodged an FIR against Ashok Kumar Hatua, retired headmaster of Khamarchak High School of Tamluk block, his son and daughter. An FIR has been lodged in the case of getting SC and later ST certificates made despite being of general caste. According to sources in the district administration, a gang of making certificates on the basis of fake documents is active in the area. They do this work in exchange of money. For this, 'Duare Sarkar' camps are chosen. A large number of applications are submitted in such camps. The aim is to dispose of those applications quickly. The name of another member of the family is changed in the caste certificate and a copy printed on the computer is submitted as an authentic document. Such mistakes are happening due to lack of proper verification

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey