Exposed, Subba hides behind excuses

New Delhi: A week after CNN-IBN exposed that Congress MP Moni Kumar Subba is not an Indian citizen, the politician rejected the charges and said the matter is sub judice.

A series of investigative reports by CNN-IBN prove that Subba, who represents Tezpur, has lied about his nationality, age, education and place of birth while filing nomination papers for elections.

The nationality debate

While addressing a press conference in Delhi, Subba said that CNN-IBN's proof was incomplete as there were no original documents regarding his nationality.

A CNN-IBN special investigation team probing his roots dug up evidence to show that Subba has lied about his place of birth.

Documents in the 12th Lok Sabha record his place of birth as Tezpur, Assam. His date of birth is recorded as March 16, 1951. But his dossier for the current (14th) Lok Sabha shows his place of birth as Dabgram (Darjeeling) in West Bengal, and the date of birth as March 16, 1958.

The Age Contradiction

Subba was unable to defend himself when the question of contradictory age proofs came up. He stated that he had already given the proof of his birth in India to the SC and would not make it public.

The CNN-IBN team, which travelled to Assam to check Subba's original nomination papers, found shocking inconsistencies in the documents that he had filed along with his nomination papers.

For instance, in his nomination paper for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Subba records his age as 54 years. But in a counter-affidavit filed by him in the Supreme Court in 2005 in the case challenging his nationality, Subba says he was 47-years-old then.

Criminal Background

Subba also denied being held at the Nepal jail and said he had clarified the matter with Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Subba said he had been an MLA on two occasions and an MP thrice and his nomination has never been rejected.

Over the years, there have been reports that Subba was, in fact, a murder convict in Nepal, and he was imprisoned from 1971 to 1973 before he escaped to India.

After settling down in India, Subba set up a successful gambling and lottery business, systematically erasing his Nepali past.

The court excuse

The Supreme Court, hearing a case that has challenged his status as an Indian, has given Subba time till April 20 to prove his Indian nationality.

"The matter is sub judice in the Supreme Court. We must allow the SC to do it's work," he said. Subbai said he would accept the decision of the Supreme Court.