Raipur: An FIR has been registered against former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in Bilaspur district, days after a government-appointed committee rejected his claim of being a tribal, police said today.
A high-level caste scrutiny committee set up by the State government had last week dismissed Ajit Jogi’s claim of belonging to a Scheduled Tribe (ST) and cancelled his caste certificates.
Subsequently, Ajit Jogi, who served as the first Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, has been booked for allegedly fraudulently obtaining caste certificates, the police said.
The 73-year-old politician’s claim of being a tribal has been rejected multiple times in the past too. The case against Ajit Jogi was filed on Thursday night under section 10 (1) of the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (Regulation of
Certification of Social Status) Rules, 2013, at the civil lines police station on the direction of the district administration, Bilaspur SP Prashant Agrawal told PTI.
The FIR was lodged by T R Bhardwaj, tehsildar of Bilaspur, around 120km from here, on behalf of district Collector, he added. The district administration has pointed out that the scrutiny committee had cancelled Jogis caste certificates in its order dated 23 August, he said.
The panel had authorised the Bilaspur Collector to carry out necessary proceedings under the Chhattisgarh ST/SC/ OBC (Regulation of Social Status Certification) Rules, 2013 in the matter, Agrawal said.
Subsequently, the Collector wrote to the tehsildar to lodge an FIR in this connection, the SP said.
However, Ajit Jogi, a sitting MLA and a former Congressman, is yet to be arrested as the investigation into the matter is underway, he added.
Following the latest decision, Ajit Jogi, the MLA from Marwahi, a Scheduled Tribes reserved seat, may lose his Assembly membership.