Uttar Pradesh minister SP Singh Baghel who has been surrounded in controversies for using a fake caste certificate to contest the Assembly polls has been given a ticket by the Bharatiya Janata Party for the upcoming polls. Baghel, who allegedly got a fake certificate made from the Sadar Tehsil in Agra has a case pending in the Allahabad Court.
Per media reports back in 2017, Baghel submitted a fake Scheduled Caste certificate. Tundla village resident Prem Pal Singh Chak had submitted a plea in the Allahabad High court in April 2017, following which the HC summoned the UP minister in December the same year asking him why he produced a Scheduled Caste certificate when he belongs to Other Backward Class (OBC). Chak, in an interview with Hindi daily Rajasthan Patrika, said that Baghel belonged to the OBC category, while he fought the Assembly polls filing his candidature based on a fake scheduled caste certificate from Tundla district, Firozabad. He alleged that Baghel got a fake certificate from Agra which falsely states that he belongs to the Dhangar caste.
As per the Patrika report, Baghel’s family belongs to the Auraiya district in Uttar Pradesh. Reportedly, Baghel’s brother Brijraj Singh put in a request for certificates stating the family belongs to the Dhangar caste. The Tehsildar, upon investigation, however, found that the family belongs to the Gadariya caste. The request was consequently denied.
In October 2018, senior advocate and social activist Prashant Bhushan shared original copies of the certificates that Baghel used, on Twitter. “Yogi’s Minister SP Singh Baghel got elected from the reserved seat by giving a fake SC certificate. He originally declared himself a Thakur in his school, then an OBC to get a job at college in OBC quota&finally as SC to get reserved seat! Now he evades HC notice in Election Petition!” read his tweet.
Yogi’s Minister SP Singh Baghel got elected from reserved seat by giving a fake SC certificate.He originally declared himself a Thakur in his school, then an OBC to get a job at college in OBC quota&finally as SC to get reserved seat! Now he evades HC notice in Election Petition! pic.twitter.com/w3k9tuXA3K
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) October 12, 2018
Prior to this, in 2014, Baghel was reportedly involved in violence on the polling day during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Baghel, a cabinet minister in the Adityanath government, has been given a ticket from Agra, where the elections are supposed to be held in the second phase.
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