Delhi court orders police to register FIR against AAP councillor Bobi
Devi, who had contested for the same post on the symbol of Congress party, approached the court saying Bobi presented herself as a woman and an SC
A Delhi court on Saturday directed the Delhi Police to register a FIR against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) transgender councillor Bobi on a complaint filed by one Varuna Devi alleging that Bobi had filed forged caste certificates.
“The application under consideration is allowed and SHO concerned is directed to register FIR under appropriate section of law without being influenced by the sections mentioned in the complaint and take up the investigation and file appropriate report after investigation”, said judicial magistrate first class Sanya Dalal
Devi, who had also contested for the same post on the symbol of Congress party, had approached the court alleging that Bobi not only presented herself to be a woman, but also a member of the schedule caste relying upon forged caste certificates to contest election for the Sultanpuri ward which was reserved for a women and a member of the scheduled caste tribe
She had claimed that Bobi had relied upon a certificate issued by the district Gautam Nagar dated March 2017, however, when Devi initiated enquiry and raised the request with the Tehsildar Dadri to conduct an enquiry, it was revealed that the caste certificate was not issued by Uttar Pradesh government and no record was found online
Devi further pointed out that in addition to the caste certificate issued by Uttar Pradesh government Bobi had within a period of five days presented a second caste certificate which was issued by the Delhi government creating suspicion on the entire proceedings.
The court called for an action taken report (ATR) from the Delhi Police. According to the ATR a report has been received from the SDM office Kanjhawala that the second caste certificate used by Bobi was issued from Delhi.
However, another report was received from Gautam Budh Nagar that no person by the name of Bobi resided at the address given in the first certificate but the caste certificate was issued by the concerned authority.
After going through the action taken report, the court noted that regarding the same certificate two contradictory reports have been received from the same office of Tehsildar, Dadri, Gautam Budh Nagar, thus a detailed investigation is to be conducted in the case.
“The report in the form of Annexure F has been filed alongwith the supporting affidavit and alike the report of the Investigating Officer, there is no reason to disbelieve the said report as well….Hence, this court is of the view that a detailed investigation into the matter is required to unearth the entire story behind two different reports of a same office, as wells as in view of a prima facie case, since commission of cognizable offence is made out”, the court said.
The court further clarified that the order is not a direction to the Station House Officer (SHO) to arrest Bobi.
“The police should first investigate the matter and find out whether actually any offence has been committed or not”, the court added.
The matter has now been listed on August 9 for filing of a compliance report by the Delhi Police
Talking to HT, Bobi’s counsel advocate Amit Kumar said that they will be challenging the order passed by the magistrate court before the sessions court