BHOPAL: Turncoat BJP MLA Sumitra Devi Kasdekar is in legal trouble over discrepancies in her age and her education-related documents. A judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) court in Burhanpur district has directed the police to lodge an FIR against her. The court issued the directions after hearing a complaint filed by one Balchandra Shinde through his counsel Sheikh Zahiruddin.
According to Zahiruddin, “The MLA from Nepanagar, Sumitra Devi Kasdekar had while applying for an LPG gas agency in 2011, stated in the affidavit that she was born on May 4, 1985, and that she was a matriculate.” The complaint said that Kasdekar, while filing her nomination for the Assembly by-election as the BJP candidate in 2020, had stated in the affidavit that she was born on Aug. 15, 1983 and she was “eight class pass”.
Hearing the complaint, the court directed the police to lodge an FIR and submit a report within a month.
Confirming the development, Burhanpur district police superintendent Rahul Lodha said, “We’ve received a missive from the court. We’ll investigate the matter and take action and report back to the court within a month.”
Kasdekar was elected on a Congress ticket from Nepanagar (ST) seat in 2018. However, soon after the fall of the Kamal Nath government in 2020, the first-time MLA quit and joined the BJP. In November 2020, she contested the by-election from the same seat and retained it as a BJP candidate.