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Assam MP Subba's documents are fake, CBI tells SC

Source:PTI
August 29, 2008 01:47 IST
The Central Bureau of Investigation has told the Supreme Court that Congress member of Parliament from Assam, Mani Kumar Subba, has obtained a birth certificate in a "fraudulent" manner for the purpose of establishing his Indian nationality.

Rejecting the claim of Subba that he was born in Assam's Silguri district, the CBI told the apex court that the MP had given different dates of birth and places of birth to various authorities for different reasons and was thus "prima facie" guilty of various criminal offences.

The CBI's report comes in the backdrop of the apex court's direction to probe the nationality of Subba, who according to a public interest litigation was a Nepalese citizen who fled that country in the 1970s after a murder case was registered against him there.

Subba, in an affidavit before the apex court, had claimed his date of birth as March 16 1958. He had claimed that he was born in Dadgram village in Darjeeling district of West Bengal and his parents had migrated from Singtam village in Sikkim. The Lok Sabha MP from Tezpur had claimed he was born at a house with address Door No 1, Dabgra, Ward NO XXIII, PO-Silguri and named Phanindranath Sarkar as its owner.

The PIL had alleged that Subba has changed his name from Mani Raj Limbo to Mani Kumar Subba after fleeing Nepal.

 The CBI has said that its verification has revealed that the certificate was bogus and obtained in a fraudulent manner. 'The certificate of birth produced by him in this regard along with his affidavit has been obtained by misrepresentation of facts and in a fraudulent manner since the given birth place was neither in existence nor Phanindranath Sarkar was its owner during and prior to 1958,' the CBI has stated in its report.

The PIL filed by a Noida resident, Birendra Nath Singh, had alleged that the Tezpur MP and lottery baron had come to India after a murder case was registered against him in Nepal in early 1970s.

The CBI, which verified the affidavit filed by Subba in the apex court, said that the documents provided by him relating to the alleged murder case against him in Nepal could not be verified as the reply from Kathmandu was awaited.

"...since these documents (judgements of Supreme Court of Nepal) have originated from Nepal, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs have been requested to arrange to get the certified copy of the above document from Nepal Government through diplomatic channel and the reply is still awaited," the report said.

The CBI, which on earlier occasions, had been pulled up by a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishanan, for adopting a dilly-dallying approach in the matter, accused Subba of giving "inconsistent" and "contradictory" details with various authorities including the Lok Sabha Secretariat and the passport officials vis-a-vis his date and place of birth.

The investigating agency, which provided details about Subba's affidavits filed before various authorities said he provided two separate date of birth -- March 16, 1951 and March 16, 1958. Further, there were inconsistencies relating to his educational qualification and institutions where he studied.

"Thus, the verification undertaken has revealed a prima-facie commission of cognizable offence punishable under section 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 471(using forged document as genuine) and 193 (giving false evidence in judicial proceedings) of IPC and section 12 of the Passports Act, on the part of Subba and others," the CBI said.

The CBI said that before the Regional Passport Office, Guwahati, Subba had given his date of birth as March 16, 1951 and place of birth as "Harmet, PO-Merbi, District Lakhimpur, Assam and educational qualification as upto higher secondary stage (Hindi) to get a diplomatic passport from the New Delhi passport office.

The verification report said Subba had claimed at one point before the passport officials that he was born on March 16, 1958 at Harmoti, Assam but in certain other documents he got the birth place changed to Dabgram, Siliguri, Darjeeling.

The nomination papers and affidavits filed by Subba while contesting elections to the 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha from 9-Tezpur Parliamentary Constituency said he was born in 1951, the report said.

However, as per the biographical sketch of members of the 12th and 13th Lok Sabha, Subba was born on March 16, 1951 at Tezpur, Assam and as per the biographical sketch of member of 14th Lok Sabha, Subba was born on March 16, 1958 at Nos-1, Dabgram, Siliguri, Dist Darjeeling, West Bengal.

Further, as per the proforma/publication for who's who of 12th Lok Sabha in respect of Subba, the date of birth is March 16, 1951 and place of birth is Tezpur. And as per the extracts from  ''Who's who' for 14th Lok Sabha in respect of Subba, the date of birth is March 16, 1958 and place of birth is Nos-1, Dabgram, Siliguri, Darjeeling.

The claim of Subba in his affidavit that he passed VIII standard from Gandhi Vidyalaya, Bordubi, P.O Hograjan, District Tinsukia in the year 1972 is also found to be false since the said school itself was not in existence in 1972.

"Further, as per the affidavit dated October 3, 1985 sworn by Subba before the Executive Magistrate, Tezpur, Moni Kumar Subba and Moniraj Limboo are one and the same person", the report said.

During the last hearing on April 28, the Chief Justice while perusing the documents placed before his bench in a sealed cover, had said  "The birth certificate produced by Subba is not genuine."

After dilly-dallying for almost a year, the probe agency on December 10 last, had placed its report in a sealed cover before the court on allegations questioning the citizenship of the MP from Tezpur.

The Bench had declined to make the report public and said it would only be given to Subba for responding and posted the matter for further hearing after the summer vacation.    

Subba's counsel Abhishek Singhvi had said the MP has been in politics for years and this charge had been made against him on several occasions. The court had expressed displeasure over the CBI seeking more time to probe Subba's citizenship issue and had warned the Centre and CBI on January 19, 2007  for their inability to provide concrete answers on the matter.

Source: PTI
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