Centre cancels T\'gana MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh\'s citizenship

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday revoked the citizenship of Telangana MLA Ramesh Chennamaneni for concealing information and obtaining Indian citizenship by fraud, reported NDTV.

The Centre also said Chennamaneni, a member of the state's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), had concealed facts about his visits abroad.

The order from the Home Ministry said: "His misrepresentation/concealment of fact misled the government of India in making its decision initially. Had he revealed the fact that he had not resided in India for one year before making the application, the competent authority in this ministry would not have granted citizenship to him."

It said the competent authority was "satisfied that it was not conducive to public good that Chennamaneni continues to be a citizen of India" and, therefore, decided that he "ceases" to be a citizen of the country.

In its 13-page order, the ministry said the competent authority had considered various aspects, such as Chennamaneni being a sitting MLA and the absence of a criminal background and the fact that no criminal case has been filed against him. He has not been reportedly involved in any activity of terrorism, espionage, serious organised crime or war crime, it said.

"Any misrepresentation or concealment of fact at that level would certainly be not conducive to the public good," the order said. It quoted a Supreme Court order as saying, "It is a well-known canon of law that 'Caesar's wife should be above suspicion'."

Reacting to the order, Chennamaneni said, the Telangana High Court earlier gave a positive decision. "But, Home Ministry did not consider that and again cancelled (citizenship). So, we will approach High Court again for safeguarding citizenship," he added.

Ramesh Chennamaneni represents the Vemulawada seat, around 150 km from state capital Hyderabad. Chennamaneni was first elected as an MLA from N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA in 2009. He later joined K Chandrashekar Rao's TRS and was re-elected in the by-election in 2010. He was elected to the Assembly again in 2014 and 2018.

 

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