In a fresh trouble for actor and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate from Amravati Navneet Kaur Rana, a social activist has filed a petition challenging the caste certificate issued to her.
The petition has sought restrain from allowing her to use her caste certificate to gain any benefits of reservation, including for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The writ petition has been filed by Raju Mankar and Jayant Vanjari. Mr Mankar has alleged that his statutory right has been jeopardised as he intends to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Amravati seat which has been reserved for Scheduled Caste.
The petitioners have alleged that Ms Navneet procured a caste certificate on the basis of fake documents.
"She originally hails from the State of Punjab. As per information received by the petitioners, she belongs to Labana caste which is not recognised as Scheduled Caste in the State of Maharashtra. However, she initially obtained caste certificate from the Sub-Divisional Officer on the basis of fake school leaving certificate," the petition has claimed.
Recently, a magisterial court had directed the Mumbai Police to register a First Information against the actor to investigate the charges of fake documents. On the complaint of Mr Mankar, the court had directed the police to investigate if the certificate of Scheduled Caste procured by Ms Navneet as per law.
The Bombay High Court is slated to hear the matter on March 10.