RAIPUR: Following the discovery of discrepancies in the birth certificates of legislator Amit Jogi, son of former chief minister Ajit Jogi, the Chhattisgarh High Court directed the union home secretary to apprise whether Amit was born in Dallas in the United States.
Satish Verma, counsel for the petitioner, Samira Paikra, told the New Indian Express, “Amit Jogi, according to the available certificates, was born at three different places on three different dates. So we have challenged it and consequently appealed the court to cancel his election from the reserved ST constituency of Marwahi.” According to the age certificates submitted by Paikra in the court, Amit was born at Dallas (Texas) on 7 August 1977, in Indore Madhya Pradesh on May 7, 1977, and at Sarbahra village in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh on 7 August 1978.
Paikra, a BJP tribal leader, lost the reserved tribal seat in Marwahi to Amit Jogi in 2013 polls. In 2014, he filed a petition in the high court seeking the cancellation of his election.
Amit after winning the Marwahi seat in 2013 was sacked from the party in January 2016 for allegedly trying to turn the 2014 Antagarh by-election in favour of the BJP. Later in June, the 71-year-old bureaucrat-turned politician, Ajit Jogi, resigned from Congress and floated a new regional political outfit.
The court has also asked the high-powered scrutiny committee constituted to examine the legitimacy of Ajit Jogi's caste to furnish the findings before it.
A couple of months ago, the scrutiny committee, which was constituted on the directive of the Chhattisgarh High Court to examine the legitimacy of Ajit Jogi’s caste, rejected the former chief minister’s claim of belonging to a tribal community.
Jogi has questioned the committee's observation in the high court. “The decision of the committee is nothing but a political conspiracy. I belong to a Kanwar tribe,” Jogi asserted.