RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh police had registered an FIR against the former chief minister Ajit Jogi, on the issue of allegedly securing the fake caste certificate, in the civil lines police station at Bilaspur district, about 120 km east of Raipur.
Tehsildar T R Bharadwaj carrying the memorandum of the collector reached the police station to lodge an FIR against the ex-CM. The case has been registered under the Section 10 of Chhattisgarh SC-ST-OBC (Regulation of Social Status Certification) Act.
The police action was based on the exposition report prepared by the Bilaspur collector following the recent conclusion report of the high-powered committee probing the authenticity of caste status of Jogi.
The panel didn’t recognise the 73-year-old former bureaucrat-turned-politician as a ‘tribal’ and rejected all his claims.
According to Kalim Khan, town inspector (Bilaspur civil lines thana), it’s a non-bailable section, punishable by two years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20 thousand.
Meanwhile, Jogi will challenge the observations given by the high-powered panel, citing the alleged discrepancies in the high court on Friday.
The ex-CM has been embroiled in a deep controversy for the past several years related to his caste background and his assertion on belonging to a Kanwar tribe community.