Ex-Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi booked after state panel rejects tribal status

Police in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur have registered a case against former chief minister Ajit Jogi after his claim to tribal status was rejected by a government-appointed committee, officials said on Friday.

The case was registered under section 10-1 of Chhattisgarh Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes (Regulation of Certification of Social Status) Rules, 2013 with Civil Lines police station on Thursday night. The section imposed on Jogi is non-bailable with the punishment of two years.

“We have registered a case and started investigating it,” Bilaspur’s superintendent of police Prashant Agarwal said.

The high powered committee, set up on the directions of the high court and headed by the secretary of the department of primitive caste DD Singh, concluded its probe on Jogi’s caste status on August 21. It said Jogi had failed to substantiate his claim of being a member of the Kanwar community, which comes under Schedule Tribe.

The committee had also directed Bilaspur’s collector to take action under the provisions of Chhattisgarh Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes (Regulation of Certification of Social Status) Rules, 2013. At the same time, the police were instructed to confiscate the certificates of Jogi under the provisions of Rule 23(5) of Rule 2013.

“The matter is in court. We have filed a writ petition against the order of high powered committee and we will mention the FIR also in the writ petition,” said Amit Jogi, son of Ajit Jogi.

“Secondly, the government is totally biased and doing vendetta politics against my father. We will fight the battle as per law and challenge everything in the court,” Amit Jodi added.

In 2001, senior BJP leader and former chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes Nand Kumar Sai and another party leader Sant Kumar Netam had challenged Jogi’s tribal status in the high court.

The high court had said in its judgment that the National Commission for Scheduled Castes/Tribes does not have the right to determine, investigate on caste and Netam approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision.

The Supreme Court said on October 13, 2011, that the government should resolve the caste case of Ajit Jogi by forming a high-powered committee.

The six-member committee evoked all caste certificates of Ajit Jogi on June 27, 2017. But the former CM challenged this decision in the high court and on February 21, 2018, that court directed the state government to reconstitute the committee again under DD Singh.