JAIPUR: The BJP’s troubles over fake degrees and marksheets got a new twist in Rajasthan on Tuesday when BJP MLA Amrit Lal Meena was sent to jail for allegedly forging his wife’s marksheet to make her eligible to contest the Sarpanch election in 2015.
Meena, an MLA from Salumbar in Rajasthan, has been remanded to judicial custody till July 23 after he surrendered before a lower court in Udaipur district. Meena had allegedly signed the fake documents as a guardian of his wife Shanta Devi for contesting the election in the Semari gram panchayat. A forged marksheet of Class 5 was presented, following which, a chargesheet was filed against Shanta Devi, who is currently out on bail.
MLA Meena was denied interim bail from the high court after which he moved a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court, which directed him to surrender before the court in Sarada town within three weeks and stayed his arrest. The legislator surrendered before a court in Sarada but as his interim bail was rejected by the court, the MLA was sent to jail till July 23
Shanta Devi had contested the election of Semari Sarpanch in which she had won. But the defeated candidate Saguna Devi had filed a complaint claiming Shanta’s Class 5 marksheet was fake. In the police probe, the marksheet submitted by the MLA’s wife was found to be fake. The investigation by CB-CID, found that Shanta Devi had not passed Class 5.