Court orders FIR against SP MLA for fake age proof to Election Comission

ALLAHABAD: A local court has directed the police to lodge an FIR against a newly-elected MLA of the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, who has been accused of submitting a "fake" proof of his age with the election authorities to show that he was eligible for contesting elections.

Special Chief Judicial Magistrate Satish Chandra Dwivedi yesterday directed the Kernalganj police station in the city to lodge an FIR against Prashant Kumar Singh, who was elected from Handia assembly segment of the district in a by-election held in June this year.

The order was passed on an application of Sunil Tripathi, who had contested as an Independent candidate in the by-poll which was necessitated by the death of Singh's father Mahesh Narayan Singh.

In his application moved under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, Tripathi alleged that Singh had submitted "fake" copies of his Class X marks sheet and PAN card besides getting the electoral roll "manipulated" to show that he was more than 25 years old when the polls were held on June 2, results for which were declared on June 5.

Tripathi also adduced a copy of what he claimed was a copy of the "original" marks sheet issued by the CBSE for Class X results in the year 2004 wherein the year of Singh's birth was stated to be 1989 as against 1986 shown in the document he had submitted before the election authorities as proof of his date of birth.