A case has been registered at Chembur Police Station against a former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Ramesh Suresh Kamble for allegedly contesting the 2002 BMC elections from a Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved seat by using a fake caste certificate.
Police registered a case under multiple IPC sections related to forgery, cheating, and criminal breach of trust after the following complaint was filed by 63-year-old Chitra Anant Salunke, an advocate and resident of the Chembur area, who runs a legal firm with her son.
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Kamble, a former corporator from Ward No. 192, contested the 2002 civic body polls from a seat reserved for an SC candidate, by claiming he belonged to the Hindu Mahar community. He won the election with 4,721 votes and served as a corporator.
However, later the runner-up candidate, Rajendra Vaman Waghmare, raised the issue and filed a complaint with the Divisional Caste Scrutiny Committee at Konkan Bhavan, Navi Mumbai. An inquiry on November 11, 2005, found he was not from a Scheduled Caste, leading to his disqualification.
After the investigation based on documentary evidence, including school records and a baptism certificate from a church in Matunga, Kamble was a Christian by birth. The cast certificate of the accused was issued by the Sub-Divisional Office in 1998 as invalid.
Kamble challenged the decision the Bombay High Court, and later the Supreme Court. However, all courts upheld the findings of the caste scrutiny committee. Following the disqualification, Waghmare was declared elected and served as a corporator for the remaining term.