Fake Caste Certificate Case: Mumbai Session Court Dismisses Navneet Rana Father’s Plea

A Mumbai’s session Court on Friday dismissed the plea filed by father of Navneet Rana, Amravati MP against a proclamation order issued by a magistrate.

On January 30, a magistrate court issued an order initiating proclamation proceedings against Rana’s father, Harbhajan Kundles. This came after Rana and Kundles both refused to appear in court despite being served with multiple summonses issued against them.

Rana and her father are accused of forging a fake caste certificate, and the Bombay High Court ordered Rana to surrender her certificate in 2021 after concluding that it was obtained fraudulently.

Sources said, “The application for a caste certificate was made intentionally by Rana to make a fraudulent claim to enable her to contest the election for the post of Member of Parliament in a seat reserved for a scheduled caste candidate.”

Rana then approached the Supreme Court, which stayed the high court’s decision.

Meanwhile, a complainant, Jayant Wanjari, had filed a complaint, which led to the filing of an FIR and, later, a chargesheet. The magistrate court is seeking the father and daughter’s presence in order to file charges against them.

While Rana told the magistrate court that because the Supreme Court had stayed the Bombay High Court order, all civil and criminal proceedings against her should be stopped, Wanjari argued against this claim and reminded the court that Kundles had not received similar relief from the Supreme Court.

After this argument by Wanjari’s lawyer, Sachin Thorat, the court issued a proclamation against Kundles. Thorat had pointed out to the court that the case was from 2014, but no charges had been filed.

While rejecting Kundles’ application, the Mumbai sessions court stated that it had reviewed the roznama and noticed that the accused had only appeared before the magistrate court a couple of times since the chargesheet was filed.

The sessions court also noted that non-bailable warrants (NBW) were issued twice against Kundles, with one NBW had still not been executed. The court dismissed the revision application only after noting all of this into consideration. The case’s detailed order will be made available later.