HC imposes Rs 30 lakh penalty on Telangana's ex-MLA for concealing German citizenship

Hyderabad, Dec 9 (IANS) In a big blow to former Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday ruled that he is a German citizen and imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on him for misleading the court for the last 15 years.

Venting its ire over the former MLA from Vemulawada for suppressing his German citizenship by submitting fake documents, the court imposed a huge penalty and asked him to pay it within a month.

Justice B. Vijayasen Reddy pronounced the order on a writ petition filed by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader challenging the cancellation of his Indian citizenship by the Central government.

The court directed the former legislator to pay a fine of Rs 25 lakh to the present MLA from Vemulawada Aadi Srinivas of the Congress and Rs 5 lakh to the Legal Services Authority.

Ramesh is a four-time MLA from the Vemulawada constituency in the Rajanna Sircilla district of Telangana and controversy has surrounded his Indian citizenship since 2009 when he was first elected as an MLA on the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ticket.

In 2019, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had issued a notification stripping him of Indian citizenship. Ramesh had challenged the same in the High Court.

In January this year, Additional Solicitor General B. Narasimha Sharma had informed the High Court that Ramesh had a valid German passport and he got the passport renewed till 2033.

Citing the report of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the ASG informed the court that Ramesh visited Germany thrice in 2023 using the German passport.

Srinivas of the Congress had challenged Ramesh’s Indian citizenship in 2009 and accused him of obtaining it by fraudulent means by hiding his German citizenship.

In November 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs cancelled the Indian citizenship of Ramesh on the grounds that he had held citizenship of Germany and had not fulfilled the stipulated norms while obtaining Indian citizenship in 2009.

Ramesh had gone to Germany for employment in the early 1990s and obtained German citizenship in 1993 when he surrendered his Indian passport. In 2008, he returned to India and applied for Indian citizenship which was granted to him by the MHA. He won the election from the Vemulawada assembly constituency in the 2009 elections.

As per the Citizenship Act, a person who applies for Indian citizenship should be present in India at least for 12 months before the date of application. But Srinivas lodged a complaint with the MHA stating that Ramesh still held the German passport and had gone to Germany within this stipulated period of 12 months before being granted Indian citizenship.

A committee appointed by the ministry concluded that Ramesh had obtained Indian citizenship "by playing fraud upon the Government of India and concealing crucial material facts of his visits abroad during the last twelve months immediately preceding his application for Indian citizenship".

In September 2017, the MHA cancelled the citizenship of Ramesh. However, he filed a review petition in the MHA and later moved the high court and obtained the stay order. Subsequently, he contested the Assembly elections again in December 2018 and got elected from the same constituency for the fourth time.

In the elections held in November 2023, the BRS denied a ticket to Ramesh and fielded Lakshmi Narasimha Rao. He, however, lost to Srinivas of the Congress.

--IANS