Mumbai: The Shahu Nagar police has registered an FIR against BJP ex-corporator Murji Patel from Andheri East, for allegedly submitting a false caste-related certificate to the Election Commission.
Patel was a former corporator of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The FIR was filed by a man named Milind Patil, a legal officer working with the Caste Validity Certificate Verification Committee on February 16. According to Patil, the committee had launched an inquiry after it found discrepancies in the documents submitted by Patel. The said documents were under the name of Patel’s parents and grandparents, which he submitted while contesting the polls in 2017.
At first, the committee took the matter up at Bandra court, which referred to the matter as a criminal offence, and accordingly instructed the police to register an FIR.
A three-member committee was formed pre-FIR, which included Patil, and in the inquiry, it was found that the Other Backward Caste (OBC) certificate that he produced, was made using forged documents. The forgery came to light when the committee could not trace the school from which Patel was issued the school leaving certificate. “The school mentioned was nowhere to be found. We would understand if the school was shut down, but even the nearby places, schools, and local government offices did not have any documents proving the school’s existence,” said an officer, adding that Patel’s school leaving certificate was issued on June 8, 1997, which was a Sunday.
Change Of Parents' Names
The second matter of suspicion was the change of name of Patel’s parents. As per the FIR, the birth certificate of Patel’s father is mentioned as Lira Ambalal Patel and his mother’s as Jasubai. However, as per the health department’s record, the father’s name reads as Limba Ambaji and the mother's as Savitribai.
According to police officials at Shahu Nagar, along with the charges of forgery under the Indian Penal Code, Patel has been also charged under relevant sections of the Maharashtra Scheduled Cases, Scheduled Tribes, Denotified Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Case Certificate Act, 2000.
At present, the police said they have received all the documents from the committee which are being verified by them. Based on the findings, Patel will be summoned for interrogation, officials said. "The investigation is on," said DCP Tejaswi Satpute of Zone V.
