Kempaiah's 'fake' caste certificate issue reaches HC

Bengaluru, Sept 16: The `fake caste certificate' case of former IPS officer and adviser to the Home Minister Kempaiah has reached the High Court of Karnataka.

After Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) closed the complaint in this regard, the complainant Dinesh Kallahalli has filed a writ petition in the high court, seeking probe by an outside agency into the case.

The petition contended that in 1964, in the register of admission to government school it was mentioned that Kempaiah belongs to Halumatha caste, which is not a Scheduled Tribe. In 1970, a caste certificate was obtained from the Block Development Officer, which was counter signed by the district magistrate, showing Kempaiah as belonging to Kadu Kuruba community, a Scheduled Tribe. Under the ST category, he was selected as IPS officer.

In August 2017, the ACB had given a clean chit to Kempaiah in the complaint after a preliminery enquiry. The ACB had closed the complaint after receiving a report from the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE) which certified that Kempaiah belongs to the Kadu Kuruba community.

The ACB had sought the report from the DCRE since the complaint was not directly connected to an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The complainant's claim was that in 1990, the DCRE had indicted Kempaiah for submitting a false certificate.

The DCRE report submitted to ACB stated that a 2010 report submitted by the then revenue inspector, approved by the tahsildar, concluded that Kempauah belongs to the Kadu Kuruba community. It was also stated that the revenue inspector had visited Kempaiah's native village Gollahalli in Kasaba hobli of Kanakapura taluk in Ramanagaram district.