BJP legislator from Salumbar Assembly constituency in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district, Amrit Lal Meena, has been remanded in judicial custody till July 23 after he surrendered before a court in Jaipur for allegedly forging his wife’s marksheet to enable her to contest the 2015 panchayat polls, reported PTI.
Meena had allegedly signed the fake marksheet of his wife Shanta Devi as a guardian for submitting it to the State Election Commission with her nomination papers as a proof of her educational qualification.
Shanta Devi, also an accused who is out on bail, had contested and won the polls for sarpanch in Semri village panchayat. One of her opponents, Sugna Devi, had filed a complaint against her, after which the CB-CID of the State police investigated the case and found the marksheet to be fake.
“The legislator on Monday surrendered before a court in Sarada. His interim bail was rejected following which he was sent to jail till July 23,” PTI quoted DSP, Sarada, DS Chundawat as saying.
The BJP in its previous tenure had introduced minimum education qualification to contest panchayat and local body elections.
The minimum educational qualifications to contest the panchayat and local body polls were introduced in Rajasthan during the previous BJP regime. For contesting the sarpanch election, a candidate from the general category was required to have passed class VIII, while the eligibility for a candidate from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was to have passed class V.
