Court acquits Devendra Fadnavis in case related to non-disclosure of criminal cases in election affidavit

A COURT in Nagpur has acquitted Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in connection with a case filed against him over non-disclosure of cases against him in the election affidavit in 2014.

Judicial Magistrate First Class Sangram S Jadhav acquitted Fadnavis under the Representation of People’s Act on Friday. A complaint was filed against Fadnavis by a Nagpur-based lawyer Satish Uke, who is behind bars since his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in April 2022, on allegations of money-laundering. Uke had alleged that in the affidavit filed during the 2014 assembly elections, Fadnavis had not revealed two criminal cases filed against him, stating that it was a violation under the Act.

During the proceedings, Fadnavis had admitted that his affidavit did not have disclosures about two cases and said that it was an inadvertent mistake by his lawyer. He had submitted that the cases were related to two private complaints and there was no deliberate intent to hide them in the affidavit. His lawyer too had submitted that while other cases were listed, two were left out inadvertently, without any intent to suppress information about them. The court considered these submissions while acquitting Fadnavis.