5 govt employees booked for faking caste certificates

Five government employees, including a police constable, are under investigation for submitting fake caste certificates to get their present jobs.

The Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE) received complaints against the five. An investigation found that they all had submitted fake certificates while joining the service.

Narasimhaiah C, the police inspector of the DCRE Cell, stated that they received a complaint from an individual name Selvaraj that said a 50-year-old woman Kokila N, working at the Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), belongs to the Mudaliar caste but submitted a fake certificate saying she belongs to the Adi Dravida caste. The said caste comes under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category.

In another incident, a district social welfare officer had filed a complaint stating that one Balu K, belonging to the Naidu caste, had taken a fake certificate identifying his caste as Adi Dravida. The man has been working as a driver in the ITI factory for several years.

The third case involved a police constable. Police inspector Pradeep Kumar P M, from the DCRE, stated that a 36-year-old man, Yoganth, working as a police constable at the Vidhana Soudha police station, submitted a certificate that he belongs to the Kaniyan caste which falls under the ST category, but he actually belongs to the Kaniyar caste.

Puttamma, working as a senior accountant in the accountant general’s office, is a Devanga, but she gave her caste as Dingri Bill. His colleague Gouri Shankar, who found the truth about her caste, filed a complaint with the DCRE.

In the fifth case, D Venkatesh, working with the Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Malleswaram, had submitted that he belongs to the Bhovi caste, which falls under the SC, but he actually comes from the Vokkaliga caste.

The DCRE had filed five separate complaints against these individuals for submitting fake caste certificates while joining service and availing themselves of the benefits offered to the SCs and the STs. They have prevented candidates actually eligible for SC/ST reservation the opportunity to get government jobs.

The Halasuru Gate police have booked all the five under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2014, IPC sections 420 (cheating), 198 (using as true a certificate known to be false) and 196 (using evidence known to be false).

They disclosed to DH that more than 15 cases of faking castes have come up this year and they issued notices to the accused to appear for questioning.