Fadnavis gets court summons for ‘concealing details of criminal cases’

NAGPUR: Former Maharashtra chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis has been summoned by a Nagpur court for allegedly concealing information about two criminal cases pending against him in the election affidavit he filed ahead of the 2014 Maharashtra assembly polls. following which he became chief minister.

The summons were delivered at Fadnavis’s house in Dharampeth, Nagpur, on Thursday, the day a new Shiv Sena-led government took office in the state, police officials familiar with the matter said. A magistrate’s court had restored a plea for criminal proceedings against the BJP leader for alleged non-disclosure following an order by the Supreme Court.

A Nagpur-based lawyer, Satish Uke, had filed the plea in 2014 before Nagpur’s judicial magistrate of first class court over the alleged non-disclosure of the two criminal cases in the election affidavit filed by Fadnavis before the 2014 state elections, in which he contested the South-west Nagpur seat as a BJP candidate.

Uke claimed that, by suppressing the information, Fadnavis had committed an offence under sections 181 and 182 and sections 199 and 200 of the of the IPC which deal with false statements made to the authorities.

The lawyer claimed that following his complaint, dated 2 October 2014, sent to the election observer, district election officer and the returning officer, urging them to initiate action against Fadnavis, an enquiry had been initiated but abruptly stopped. Fadnavis refuted the allegation and pointed out that no false information had been submitted.

The court dismissed the petition in 2015. Uke challenged the decision in 2016 but the Bombay high court overturned it in 2018.