The Telangana high court on Monday held that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Chennamaneni Ramesh is German and found him guilty of forging documents to become an Indian national and contest elections.
The court's ruling came on a petition by Congress' Aadi Srinivas, who defeated Ramesh for the Vemulawada seat last year, when the party wrested the state from the BRS, NDTV reported.
HT cannot independently verify this information.
In his petition, Srinivas contended that Ramesh had allegedly obtained the Indian citizenship through “fraudulent” means.
According to the NDTV report, the court noted that the BRS member had failed to provide documentation from the German embassy to prove he no longer held citizenship of the European nation. It directed him to pay ₹30 lakh as fine, of which ₹25 lakh must be paid to the petitioner.
The Constitution bars Indians from holding dual nationality. An individual must renounce his Indian citizenship to become national of another country. To become an Indian, a person must be present here for at least 12 months before the date of application.
Non-Indians cannot contest or vote in elections.
{{/usCountry}}Non-Indians cannot contest or vote in elections.
{{/usCountry}}Ramesh visited Germany in the early 1990s and became a citizen in 1993. He returned in 2008 and his application for Indian citizenship was accepted by the Union home ministry, then under the Congress.
The following year, Ramesh won the Vemulawada seat as a candidate of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in undivided Andhra Pradesh. In 2010, he moved to the BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) and won the subsequent by-election. He won the seat again, in 2014, in the newly-formed Telangana state, and again in 2018.
In July 2020, the politician's Indian citizenship was revoked by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. The Centre reaffirmed this in the high court in February 2021.