MP govt panel annuls caste certificate of BJP MP

The caste certificate of BJP MP from Betul (ST) constituency Jyoti Dhurve has been annulled by the Madhya Pradesh government's state level scrutiny committee.
The committee is mandated by the state government to look into the complaints regarding caste documents.
Meanwhile, the government on the panel's report issued on April 1, today directed the Betul's district collector to initiate legal action and confiscate her caste certificate.
The committee carried out the inquiry following a complaint by a lawyer Shankar Pendram on May 30, 2009.
Pendram had demanded to cancel the nomination of Jyoti Dhurve, who was the BJP nominee for Betul Lok Sabha seat, which is reserved for the scheduled tribe candidates on the ground that the Gond tribe caste certificate issued to her was not based on real facts.

The complainant had said that Dhurve had not presented proper documents in support of her claim that she belongs to Gond tribe community.

Following the complaint, an inquiry was conducted by the deputy superintendent of police SC/ST Welfare.
The inquiry report submitted on April 1 however, found that the documents presented by Dhurve have failed to corroborate her claim that she belongs to Gond tribal community, which is a scheduled tribe in Madhya Pradesh.
It was also found that she mentioned the name of her husband's caste in place of father's caste in the application for the caste certificate, which is mandatory.

After taking all these facts into consideration, the committee in its order issued on April 1 by Commissioner and Secretary of the panel, Deepali Rastogi stated that it has decided to "cancel and confiscate the certificate issued to Dhurve and take appropriate legal action in the matter."
On the basis of the report the state government's Tribal Development Department's deputy commissioner issued an order today directing the district collector to cancel and confiscate the caste certificate of Dhurve and take appropriate legal action.
Meanwhile, state Congress chief spokesman KK Mishra demanded that Jyoti should be disqualified from the Lok Sabha following action against her on the issue.

Despite repeated attempts, Dhurve could not be reached for comments.