Atul Bora had announced his resignation yesterday in a press conference, where Jatin Mali, Higher Education Minister, was present, accusing Mahanta of `high-handedness' and demanding a change in the leadership.

Official sources said here that Mali was dropped from the Cabinet for anti-party activities.

The two ministers had complained of being humiliated in the recent ministerial reshuffle yesterday. Bora, a senior minister and AGP general secretary, was given the forest portfolio instead of PWD while Mali was handed over the higher education charge in place of his earlier department of elementary and secondary education. Asked to comment on Mahanta's move to drop Mali, Bora said that the future course of action would be decided at a meeting very soon.

Refusing to immediately commenton today's development, Bora said that the reported statements of Transport Minister Pradeep Hazarika and the Minister for Welfare of Backward Class, Rajendra Mushary, were false. ``They are very much with us,'' he claimed.

Shillong: Meanwhile, Assam Transport Minister Pradip Hazarika and seven others appeared before the district and sessions judge here in connection with the killing of the then upper Assam commissioner E S Parthasarathy on April 6, 1981, and related cases of possession of arms and explosives.