Citizenship row: Chennamaneni Ramesh pays Rs 25 lakh penalty

Hyderabad: Chennamaneni Ramesh, who was declared ineligible for contesting elections in India owing to his German citizenship and also his misleading approach in acquiring Indian citizenship through suppression of facts, paid the penalty of 25 lakh slapped on him by the high court
It wasAdi Srinivas, Congress leader, who first brought out the issue of German citizenship of Ramesh after losing the election in Vemulawada assembly constituencyin Karimnagar district.
Ramesh was elected four times as MLA from Vemulawada. In the 2009 and 2010 by-elections, he won on a TDP ticket, and in 2014 and 2018, he got elected as MLA on a BRS ticket. Adi Srinivas lost thrice to him before winning the election in 2023 on a Congress ticket.
The central government, which inquired into the issue, concluded that Chennamaneni Ramesh was supposed to stay in India for a specified period after returning to India from Germany before applying for Indian citizenship. He did not fulfil this mandatory stay in India and suppressed this fact in the application format and chose to mislead the officials instead. The central probe identified this and suspended his Indian citizenship because, despite being a legislator, he chose to defend his mistake instead of admitting the same.
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, who pronounced his judgement in December 2024, directed Ramesh to pay a penalty of 25 lakh and hand over the same to Adi Srinivas. His counsel handed over the cheque to V Rohith Rao, the counsel for Adi Srinivas, on Monday in the court of Justice Vijaysen. Immediately, the counsel handed over the cheque to Srinivas.
Ramesh should not be referred to as ex-MLA since he was not an Indian citizen when he won the Vemulawada Assembly elections in the past, said Adi Srinivas who is currently Congress whip in the state assembly. Srinivas said thathe would soon approach the HC to recover the salaries and other financial benefits received by Ramesh as a legislator.