Mira-Bhayandar: In a respite for former BJP legislator Narendra Mehta, the district caste certificate verification committee, Mumbai, has issued an order to cancel and invalidate the caste certificate of a corporator who had accused him of abusing her for being from the backward community.
The BJP had suffered an embarrassing blow in February this year when the former legislator was booked on charges of sexually assaulting and harassing the sitting the corporator of his own party in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC).
The police swung into action after the corporator posted a video on social media platforms, claiming threat to her life from Mehta and taunted her about her caste.
In response to complaints, the committee conducted a probe and found that the certificate was procured on the virtue of fake submissions and tampered documents. Apart from invalidating the caste certificate, the committee has also empowered the vigilance cell to file a criminal offence against the erring applicant under sections 11 and 12 of the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Denotified Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Act, 2000. A case under relevant provisions of IPC and Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, had been registered at the Mira Road police station against Mehta and his accomplice who have procured judicial relief against arrest.
