In a letter addressed to the district collector and senior officials of the Telangana state government, the LRPF highlighted that three individuals, Pastor Muppalla Poul Dhinakar, Ubbani Laxmaiah, and Ginnarapu Jacob, all residents of Yellandu Mandal, are in possession of SC certificates despite practicing Christianity. The complaint notes that all three are active members of the Yellandu Mandal Pastors Fellowship and have publicly identified as such. Their continued use of SC benefits, the Forum contends, is a violation of both constitutional law and social justice principles.

The case took a revealing turn when an FIR (No. 254/2025) was registered by Yellandu Police on July 18, 2025. Ironically, it was Pastor Dhinakar himself who lodged the complaint, following an alleged assault while he and others were distributing Christian literature and Bibles in the 21 Pit area. The FIR clearly identifies all involved as Christian pastors engaged in evangelism. This public acknowledgment of their religious identity while simultaneously holding SC certificates flies in the face of Paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, which explicitly states that no person professing a religion other than Hindu Dharma, Buddhism, or Sikhism shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.

According to the LRPF, the pastors’ actions amount to a deliberate fraud on the Bharatiya Constitution and the state. By availing themselves of benefits such as reservations in education, government jobs, and welfare schemes meant exclusively for Scheduled Caste Hindus, they have unlawfully occupied spaces reserved for genuine beneficiaries. The Forum argues that this misuse is not just unethical; it is criminal. Accordingly, they have called for charges under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for offenses such as cheating, misrepresentation, and forgery. The complaint also urges that the government officials who facilitated or overlooked these fraudulent certifications be suspended and subjected to criminal investigation.

The legal complaint references a 2019 circular issued by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (No. 12017/02/2018-SCD), which directed all state governments and union territories to take immediate steps to cancel SC certificates held by individuals who had converted to Christianity. This directive, issued following findings from the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of SC/STs, emphasized that such misuse of the reservation system was becoming rampant and required a strong legal and administrative response. The circular also called for criminal prosecution of the certificate holders and disciplinary action against the government officials involved.

In their statement, the LRPF underscored that this incident is not an isolated case but indicative of a broader systemic failure that threatens the integrity of constitutional protections for Scheduled Caste Hindus. They stressed the urgent need for thorough verification mechanisms, including religious identity declarations, regular audits, and biometric-linked caste verification protocols, to ensure that caste-based entitlements are awarded only to those constitutionally eligible.

This case has reignited anger and frustration among both Hindu and SC/ST rights activists, who have long warned of organized conversion activities in Bharat’s Janjatiya and backward regions. The LRPF has consistently raised concerns over the misuse of caste-based benefits by individuals who have undergone religious conversion but continue to claim Scheduled Caste or OBC status. As early as 2020, LRPF exposed a major case in Andhra Pradesh, revealing that nearly 70% of the 29,841 Christian pastors who received a one-time honorarium of ₹5,000 under the ‘Disaster Relief Fund’ held Hindu SC/OBC caste certificates. This pattern of manipulated conversions followed by illegal retention of caste benefits continues to surface across various states, undermining constitutional provisions and depriving genuine beneficiaries of their rights.