A Hassan court recently convicted a person who enjoyed the position of gram panchayat president by falsely claiming himself to belong to a Scheduled Caste and sentenced him to four years imprisonment besides a penalty.
H.R. Ramakrishna, a native of Honnavalli in Tiptur taluk of Tumakuru district, resided at D.M. Kurke in Arsikere taluk. He belonged to the Deshbagh caste (Other Backward Caste). However, he obtained a caste certificate claiming himself to belong to the Channadasa caste (Scheduled Caste) from Arsikere tahsildar in August 1998. He had furnished false information to the officer to obtain the certificate.
Later in the year 1999-2000, he contested for the reserved ward of the D.M. Kurke gram panchayat and also got elected as president of the panchayat. He enjoyed the position that was reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate. With that, he denied the genuine candidate an opportunity. Besides that, he got SC certificates for his two children as well.
Based on a complaint, the police investigated the case and filed the charge-sheet for making false declarations and cheating. The first additional district and sessions judge Sadananda Swamy convicted him and sentenced him to two to four years imprisonment under different sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, besides a penalty of ₹45,000, on October 18.
“All the sentences would be served concurrently. The period of imprisonment may go up if he fails to pay the penalty. This verdict should serve as deterrent,” said H.K. Suresh, public prosecutor in the case.
