Amit Jogi, the son of former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh President has been arrested by the Chhattisgarh police for using a fake birth certificate and cheating during the 2013 assembly elections.
As per reports, Amit Jogi was arrested today morning from Bilaspur. Prashant Agarwal, SP, Bilaspur has been quoted by Hindustan Times saying, “We have arrested Amit Jogi in a case which was lodged against him in February under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 with Gaurela police station of Bilaspur by Sameera Paikra, BJP candidate against him in 2013.”
Paikra in his complaint had stated that Jogi had provided false information in his election affidavit while filing his nomination from the Marwahi assembly constituency under Bilaspur district. Marwahi is an ST reserved seat. Paikra, who had lost the election in 2013 against Jogi, had alleged that Amit Jogi should not be eligible to contest from the seat as he has faked his caste in his documents.
In 2014, Sameer Paikra had filed an election petition in the High Court seeking the cancellation of Amit Jogi’s election from Marwahi. Paikra had stated in his complaint that Jogi’s birth certificate, caste certificate and citizenship certificates show him as being born in three different places on three different dates.
According to the documents submitted by Paikra in the court, Amit Jogi was born in Dallas, Texas on 7 August 1977, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh on May 7, 1977, and in Sarbahra village, Bilaspur on 7 August 1978.
The Chhattisgarh HC has rejected Paikra’s petition in January this year stating that the 2013-18 assembly session has already ended.
Recently, a government-appointed committee had rejected the tribal status of former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi. Ajit Jogi has termed it ‘vendetta politics’ and had stated that ‘Jungle Raj’ is going on in the state.
After the rejection of the Tribal status, the Bilaspur police had registered a case against Amit’s father Ajit Jogi under the section 10-1 of the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Backward classes (Regulation of Certification of Social Status) Rules 2013 with the civil lines police station on Thursday night. The case against former CM Ajit Jogi is non-bailable and is carries a punishment of up to 2 years.
The government-appointed committee had submitted that Ajit Jogi had falsely claimed to belong to the Kanwar tribal community. Complaints against Jogi’s false tribal status have been raised since 2001. BJP leader Sant Kumar Netam had alleged back in 2001 that Jogi’s claim of tribal status is false and based on false documents.
The Supreme Court had ordered the Chhattisgarh state government in 2011 to form a high-level government committee to investigate the veracity of Jogi’s claim to be tribal.
