The Telangana High Court on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on former BRS MLA from Vemulawada constituency, Chennamaneni Ramesh for suppressing facts about his German citizenship before the court.

According to the order of the judge, B Vijaysen Reddy out of the Rs30 lakhs fine imposed on the former MLA Rs25 lakh must be paid to the current Congress MLA from Vemulawada, Aadi Srinivas who had been fighting a long legal battle over the German citizenship of Chennamaneni Ramesh.

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The remaining sum would go to the Telangana State Legal Services Authority. The writ petition filed by the ex-MLA challenging the central government’s order that he was not an Indian citizen, was dismissed by the judge.

Ramesh, the son of a prominent Communist leader Chennamaneni Rajeshwara Rao had moved to Germany and acquired German citizenship. However, he returned to India in 2008 and applied for Indian citizenship. He entered politics and contested from Vemulwada in 2009 and won defeating Adi Srinivas by a small margin.

Aadi Srinivas then challenged his citizenship and the Ministry of Home Affairs which probed the matter, found Ramesh had not fulfilled the mandatory residency for 12 months at a stretch before applying for Indian citizenship. His citizenship was revoked in 2017 and finally confirmed in 2019.

However, in between he had been elected thrice as a legislator. In 2009 he won as a TDP candidate and subsequently, he won twice as a BRS candidate. It was only in 2023 that he was not given a party ticket because of the order of the MHA revoking his citizenship.

The court pointed out that the former legislator failed to produce any documentation to confirm he was not a German citizen.

After the judgment, Aadi Srinivas expressed his delight in a social media post where he wrote, “Backlash for former MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh in High Court. A fine of Rs30 lakh on Ramesh who was elected MLA with false documents despite being a German citizen. The High Court ordered him to pay Rs 25 lakh to petitioner Adi Srinivas and Rs 5 lakh to the Legal Service Authority.”