Triple Olympian Mukesh Kumar found guilty of using fake caste certificate

At the end of the day, the ugly issue of caste which dominates the socio-political landscape of the country has not even left aside sports in its way of destruction. Funnily enough, this is not a case of discrimination. It's about a former athlete, an Olympian who has misused the notion of caste to issue a false certificate for himself. Triple Olympian and former Indian hockey player N Mukesh Kumar has been found guilty of obtaining a false SC 'A' Mala caste certificate. If one is yet ignorant about the achievements of the said hockey player, Mukesh had been a major part of the Indian squad for three Olympics-at Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000. Additionally, he was also granted the Arjuna Award in 1995 and the Padma Shri in 2003 for his achievements and contributions towards the sport of Hockey.

Also read: Hockey should be officially notified as our National Game: Odisha CM to Prime Minister Modi. This is with regards a Government order that is dated to May earlier this year. The Times of India has an access to the copy of the order and, as quoted, this is what it says. It advises the concerned authorities to "take immediate action on the individual for obtaining false community certificate and on the erring officials involved in issuing false certificate to N Mukesh Kumar ..." This is a case which has been ongoing for nearly 11 years now. In 2007, the chief manager (vigilance), Indian Airlines (IA) Limited, Chennai had initiated an official hearing into the issue when he prompted the then district collector, Navin Mittal to look into the issue. The Chief manager was acting upon complains by various IA officials who had alleged that the brothers, in fact, do not belong to the SC Community as was claimed. Navin Mittal's order in 2009 had come back with similar findings which were then passed on to the concerned authorities for further investigation into the truth of the matter.

"The family tree and all circumstantial evidences show they are born to parents of Nayi Brahmin Community and cannot claim to be belonging to any other community. In the case of Mukesh and Suresh, all other family members have certificates belonging to Nayi Brahmin Community. During the enquiry, they could not establish any other thing to prove their claim," Mittal had said.

Then, the brothers had filed an appeal against the order by Mittal, the hearing for which took place yesterday. With regards to action being taken for the offence, the decision now lies with the collector and district magistrate. Once intimated with the situation, the course of action can be decided upon.