Former panchayat chief gets 10-year jail term for getting SC certificate by giving false info

HASSAN: The first additional district and sessions court has handed a 10-year jail term to a former gram panchayat president for faking his caste to show that he belonged to the Scheduled Caste. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the convict.

H R Ramakrishna, who originally hailed from Honnavalli village in Tiptur taluk, had moved to DM Kurke village in Arasikere Rural police limits. Though he belonged to the Deshbagh (OBC) caste, he furnished false information to the Arasikere tahsildar and procured a caste certificate showing him as belonging to the Chennadasa community of the Scheduled Caste.

Ramakrishna furnished false information to get a caste certificate.

Ramakrishna contested the DK Kurke gram panchayat election from a seat reserved for SC in 1999-2000 and won. Later, when the gram panchayat president’s post was reserved for SC, he contested that too and won. Ramakrishna cheated the SC community by faking his caste and also the government. The investigation also revealed that he had fudged the caste certificates of his two children D R Vinay and D R Poornima while getting them admitted to a school.

The police had filed a chargesheet in the Hassan court which has now awarded Ramakrishna a 10-year jail term along with a fine of Rs 5,000. If he does not pay the fine, he will have to undergo another two months of imprisonment. The maximum punishment for the offence is 12 years with a fine of Rs 5,000.