Subba certificate fake: CBI to SC

NEW DELHI: The CBI has told the Supreme Court that the birth certificate of Congress MP from Assam, Mani Kumar Subba, was fake. A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice R V Raveendran and Justice M K Sharma on Monday perusing the CBI report told Mr Subba that the CBI report was against him and asked the MP from Tezpur to file his response to the report. Senior Counsel Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Subba, sought time to file objections to the CBI report. After dilly-dallying for almost a year, the probe agency on December 10 placed its report in a sealed cover before the court on allegations questioning the citizenship of the MP.

The court, however, declined to make the report public and said it would only be given to Mr Subba for responding and posted the matter for further hearing after the summer vacation. The court was hearing a PIL filed by Noida resident Birendra Nath Singh, who alleged that the MP and lottery baron was a Nepalese citizen and had come to India after a murder case was registered against him there in early 1970s.

CBI sources had said that during investigations it was found that the date of birth certificate submitted by Mr Subba suggesting that he was born in Silliguri in West Bengal was not authentic. Subba had given a birth certificate claiming that he was born in 1958, contrary to the records available with the Assam Regional Passport office which showed his year of birth as 1961. According to his earlier affidavit submitted in the 1998 Lok Sabha, his year of birth was 1951.

Subba���s counsel Singhvi, however, had said the MP has been in politics for years and this charge had been made against him on several occasions. The court had expressed displeasure over the CBI seeking more time to probe Subba���s citizenship issue and had warned the Centre and CBI on January 19 last year for their inability to provide concrete answers on the matter.

The Lok Sabha MP from Tezpur had claimed that he was born in Dadgram village in Darjeeling district of West Bengal and his parents had migrated from Singtam village in Sikkim. The PIL had alleged that Subba has changed his name from Mani Raj Limbo to Mani Kumar Subba after leaving Nepal.