Assam CID probes fake CISCE certificates, 4934 students under scanner

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Assam Police is investigating suspected fake Class X pass certificates issued in the name of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), with the Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB), Division-II, identifying 4,934 students who secured admission to Class XI using such documents over two academic sessions.

Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu said students found to have secured admission using forged certificates would lose their seats. He also indicated that a majority of the suspected cases had been reported from Nagaon district.

“Most of the students getting admission with fake certificates are from the Nagaon district,” Pegu said.

According to the Board, 2,083 students were admitted to Class XI during the 2025-26 academic session, while another 2,851 secured admission in the 2026-27 session using Class X pass certificates bearing the CISCE name. The certificates were allegedly issued by institutions that are not affiliated with the council.

In a communication dated September 5 to the Commissioner and Secretary of the state Department of School Education, the Board stated that it had verified the list of affiliated institutions provided by CISCE. The verification established that only 28 schools across Assam and Arunachal Pradesh were affiliated with the council.

However, the Board identified 94 institutions allegedly involved in issuing certificates in the name of CISCE despite not being affiliated with it. It classified the certificates as fake and forged and held both the students who submitted them and the institutions that issued them responsible.

As part of the action, the Board has blocked the registration of students admitted during the ongoing 2026-27 academic session on the basis of the suspected certificates.

It has also urged the state government to direct district school inspectors to initiate legal proceedings, including the registration of FIRs, against the institutions allegedly involved in the issuance of the documents.

The Board further recommended that the institutions concerned be directed to discontinue the studies of students admitted in both academic sessions using the certificates. A district-wise list of the institutions where such admissions took place was also submitted to facilitate further action.

Meanwhile, the Hojai district committee of the All Assam Minorities Students' Union (AAMSU) has demanded a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the alleged fake certificate racket, claiming that more than 600 students in the district had obtained CISCE-branded certificates and secured admission to various schools during the current academic session.

In a memorandum submitted on Tuesday to the Chief Minister, Education Minister and Hojai District Commissioner, the student organisation sought stringent legal action against those allegedly involved in preparing, selling and distributing the forged certificates. It also demanded that all members of the alleged syndicate be identified and arrested.

The organisation expressed concern that no FIR had reportedly been registered in Hojai despite the Board's directions to initiate legal proceedings against institutions suspected of issuing the certificates and students who used them to secure admission.

The memorandum alleged that the racket initially expanded during the previous Panchayat elections, when certificates purportedly issued by non-existent colleges and universities across the country were allegedly supplied in exchange for large sums of money.

It further claimed that the network subsequently extended its operations to students who had failed the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) and Higher Secondary examinations in Assam.

According to AAMSU, the certificates were allegedly sourced from institutions in Delhi and other states and professionally designed to resemble genuine academic documents.

The organisation claimed that students who had failed Assam Board examinations were initially shown as having passed through certificates bearing the CISCE name. After these documents were flagged as fake, the alleged operators reportedly began issuing certificates in the name of the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE).

Questioning the adequacy of the action taken so far, AAMSU said that merely directing schools to stop registering students with such certificates would not be sufficient to dismantle the alleged network.

The organisation called for a comprehensive investigation to identify those involved in the preparation and circulation of the documents and establish how the certificates were used to secure admissions across educational institutions.