Ranchi, Dec. 16: Two senior officials of Ranchi University and Vinobha Bhave University vice-chancellor Bahura Ekka today left for Hyderabad to depose before the CBI court that the M.Sc. degree awarded, purportedly by the university, to Andhra Pradesh cadre government officer, S. Pappa Rao, was fake.

They will appear before a special court on Friday. In 1989, UPSC deputy secretary had asked Bahura Ekka, then Ranchi University registrar, to confirm whether the provisional certificate furnished by S. Pappa Rao was genuine. Rao had claimed that he had secured a second class M.Sc. (botany) degree from Ranchi University.

An investigation by Ranchi University said the certificate was fake. University’s former registrar Misir Oraon confirmed that he had not signed Rao’s certificate. The case was handed over to the CBI.

University’s controller of examinations A.K. Mahto, public relations officer S.S. Akhtar and Ekka left for Hyderabad to tell the CBI court that Rao’s M.Sc. degree was not genuine.

Mahto said that controversial certificate was related to 1984-86 academic session. The exams were conducted in January 1988. As Rao’s name was missing in the tabulation register, it was concluded that he had not taken the exams.

Sources said the registrar, in his report, had said that Rao had neither registered himself with the university nor he was enrolled in any college or postgraduate centre during the said academic session.