By IANS,
New Delhi : There is a question mark over Congress parliamentarian M.K. Subba’s citizenship as his birth certificate was “not genuine”, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Monday told the Supreme Court.
CBI gave this information to the bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan in a report filed in a sealed cover.
Disclosing the crux of the report, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam told the bench that the agency had found the birth certificate of Subba, who represents Tezpur of Assam, “not genuine”.
After accepting the CBI’s report, the bench, which also included Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice M.K. Sharma, asked the government’s law officer to hand over a copy of the report to Abhishek Manu Snghvi, the MP’s counsel, and adjourned the matter for further hearing.
The bench had raised doubts over Subba’s citizenship Jan 19 and had asked him to submit various documents to the court to prove that he is an Indian citizen.
It had asked Subba to submit some genuine documents like his school leaving certificate or revenue record of his village land within six weeks to satisfy the court of his Indian citizenship.
The CBI later examined the documents submitted for their authenticity.
The bench then had issued stern direction to the parliamentarian after perusing a probe report by the CBI into a complaint challenging the MP’s nationality and accusing him of having fled the Nepalese law to illegally settle in India.
“Prima facie, it is a serious allegation. We have to take a serious view,” the bench had remarked.
The bench had also ticked off CBI for what it had termed “a shoddy probe” into the complaint against Subba’s nationality.
The court said it was annoyed with the affidavits of the CBI in which it was not mentioned whether Subba was a citizen of India or Nepal.
According to the allegation in the petition filed by Birendra Nath Singh, Subba’s original name is Mani Raj Limboo.
He was reportedly refused enrolment as an Indian voter in the 17 Central Pendam assembly segment in Sikkim in 1985. The CBI was asked to inquire into allegations against Subba in December 1997.