PATNA: The Bihar governemnt on Friday took serious note of the complaint of the vice-chairman of the National Commision for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Kameshwar Paswan, that the senior BJP leader, Kameshwar Chaupal, had submitted a forged caste certificate to secure benefits provided to SCS and STS under the Constitution.

The Bihar Law Minister, Shakeel Ahmed Khan, said here that Kameshwar Paswan on Friday met him and requested to personally supervise a criminal case against Chaupal pending before the Patna High Court.

Khan said that the state government had taken a serious note of the complaint and assured Paswan that the Bihar government would pursue the case till it was brought to a logical conclusion.

Chaupal had contested Lok Sabha and assembly elections from seats reserved for scheduled castes after furnishing a forged caste certificate, Paswan alleged.

Kameshwar Paswan was recently expelled from the BJP for six years for alleged anti-party activities.

Yet another case against a senior BJP MLA, Ashwani Kumar Choubey, was brought to the notice of the law department in which he had been charged with being in illegal possession of a house of a Dalit widow Radha Devi in a prime locality of the state capital since 1982.