The Mumbai crime branch has taken over the investigation into allegations that former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) corporator Ramesh Kamble contested the 2002 civic election using a forged caste certificate, following directions from the Bombay High Court.
The case was transferred after the Chembur police submitted a ‘C’ summary closure report to the 11th Metropolitan Magistrate court in Kurla. The report classified the complaint as neither true nor false, or as having been filed due to mistake or misunderstanding. The complainant, advocate Chitra Salunkhe, challenged the investigation before the Bombay High Court and sought a fresh probe by another agency.
According to the report, the Chembur police had registered a case earlier this year on allegations including cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal breach of trust. After the High Court directed that the investigation be handed over to another department, the Mumbai police commissioner transferred it to the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), who filed a report on the reassignment.
The complaint alleges that Kamble submitted a caste certificate identifying him as a Hindu Mahar while contesting the election from a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes. The complaint further alleges that Kamble was Christian by birth. He won the election and served as a BMC corporator.
The caste certificate had previously been examined by the Divisional Caste Verification Committee at Konkan Bhavan. According to the supplied report, the committee declared the certificate invalid in 2005. The Bombay High Court and, subsequently, the Supreme Court upheld the committee’s findings.
The transfer places a decades-old dispute over eligibility for a reserved civic seat before a specialised city police unit. It also brings the earlier investigation, the closure recommendation and the documents connected to the caste-verification process under fresh scrutiny. The crime branch’s role will be to examine the allegations and records rather than treat the earlier closure report as a final determination.
An official said the case had only recently been referred to the crime branch and that investigators would examine the allegations, documents, circumstances surrounding the alleged use of the caste certificate and the earlier investigation conducted by the Chembur police.
The case illustrates the institutional layers involved when the validity of a reserved-seat claim is challenged: the police investigation into alleged criminal conduct, the caste-verification committee’s administrative determination and judicial review of that determination. The current probe is focused on the criminal allegations and the circumstances surrounding the certificate’s alleged use in the 2002 BMC election.
The Mumbai crime branch is now expected to review the original investigation papers and proceed with further investigation under the direction issued by the Bombay High Court.
