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Devendra Fadnavis gets bail from Nagpur court in poll affidavit case
Ukey had accused Fadnavis of not mentioning two criminal cases in his 2014 Assembly election affidavit and moved court, demanding registration of offence against the ex-CM.
A local court in Nagpur on Thursday granted bail to former Maharashtra chief minister (CM) and now leader of the Opposition, Devendra Fadnavis, in an election affidavit malpractices case filed by lawyer Satish Ukey.
Ukey had accused Fadnavis of not mentioning two criminal cases in his 2014 Assembly election affidavit and moved court, demanding registration of offence against the ex-CM.
The chief metropolitan magistrate granted bail to Fadnavis, who appeared before court, on a personal-release (PR) bond worth ₹15,000 and posted the matter for the next hearing on March 30.
Senior counsel Sunil Manohar, on behalf of Fadnavis, stated that under section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, the offence is bailable and also presented an application for permanent exemption.
Lawyer of the petitioner, Sudeep Jaiswal, and Ukey strongly opposed bail and alleged Fadnavis had deliberately skipped court proceedings.
Ukey also accused Fadnavis of contempt of court and sought initiation of proceedings against him.
Later, Fadnavis, who was talking to reporters, stated that these cases were filed when he had participated in public agitations as a corporator and they were not linked to any civil or criminal matter.
He said he would present all facts before the court. “I am sure that I will get justice from court,” Fadnavis said.
The apex court last week had reserved its order on a review appeal filed by Fadnavis to reconsider its October 2019 verdict and asked him to face trial in the local court for failing to furnish details of two pending criminal cases against him.
After Ukey had first moved the case, the judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) had rejected the application, but the district court overruled the verdict. The Bombay high court (HC) ruled in favour of Fadnavis, but the Supreme Court in October 2019 set aside the HC verdict and directed the JMFC court to restart the trial.
During the previous three hearings, Fadnavis did not appear before the court since a review petition was pending before the apex court.
In its judgment last year, the apex court had set aside the HC order which gave a clean chit to Fadnavis and held that he did not deserve to be tried for the alleged offence under the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA).
