'Refer Subba's issue to 'privileges panel': BJP to Speaker

New Delhi, Mar 12 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party has asked Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to refer the issue of citizenship of Tejpur MP Mani Kumar Subba to an ''appropriate committee'' in the light of media digging out fresh evidence questioning his Indian citizenship.

BJP Parliamentary Party Spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra, in a letter to Mr Chatterjee said Article 84 of the Constitution specified that to become an MP citizenship of India was a must but Mr Subba was 'evading' a fair inquiry about his citizenship status.

A news channel had come out with evidence claiming the MP was actually a Nepalese.

The news report said that Mr Subba had given two different places of birth to the 12th and 14th Lok Sabha Secretariat. In 12th Lok Sabha he had given Tejpur, Asom as place of birth while he had shown Debgram, in Darjeeling in West Bengal for 14th Lok Sabha records. He had also given two different years of birth to the Secretariat. In one Nepali Magazine, 'Ratogham', the member in an interview claimed that he was born in Mangolpuri in 1946, Mr Malhotra alleged.

He said Mr Subba's application to include his name in the electoral roll was rejected by Chief Election Officer of Sikkim in 1985 on the ground that a detailed investigation report by Special Branch and Vigilance Police Force of Sikkim revealed that he was a citizen of Nepal. ''Thereafter, Mr Subba had managed to become a voter in Asom. Mr Subba's claims that he had passed class eight from Gandhi Vidyalaya in Bordubbi in Tinsukia, Asom in 1972 but the investigation by the television channel shows no such school existed in that year,'' Mr Malhotra said.

The senior BJP leader said Mr Subba, according to the report, was an 'escaped Nepali convict' Mani Raj Limbo, a resident of Ward No 8, Taplejung, Nepal and an Interpol report had confirmed the existence of a person by this name.

The Lok Sabha has set a 'precedent' while taking cognizance of sting operations in the cash-for-query scam and disqualified the 10 MPs involved following the report of Privileges Committee.

Releasing Mr Malhotra's letter BJP Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj said, ''BJP expected the issue to be referred to either Ethics Committee or Privileges Committee.'' UNI