Fadnavis gets bail in election affidavit case
| Date :21-Feb-2020 |
Staff Reporter :
Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Thursday, appeared before a Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court in connection with alleged suppression of information in election affidavit case initiated by a city lawyer Satish Ukey. CJM P S Ingle, while granting bail to Fadnavis, directed him to furnish a personal release bond of Rs 15,000 and posted the next hearing on March 30.
He was asked to appear as and when directed by the court. Fadnavis was charged with not mentioning two cases in his 2014 election affidavit after which Ukey moved the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court demanding registration of offence against the former Chief Minister. The JMFC court had rejected the application, but the District Court over-ruled the verdict stating that it was cryptic. The High Court, in May 2018, had ruled in favour of Fadnavis and dubbed the order of District Court as illogical and perverse but the Supreme Court in October 2019 set-aside the High Court verdict and directed the JMFC to restart the trial. During previous three hearings, Fadnavis did not appear before the court due to his pre-occupation. Besides, he had also filed review petition before the Supreme Court.
Two days ago, the Supreme Court reserved its verdict in this case, but refused to stay the criminal trial before the lower court. Senior Counsel Sunil Manohar appearing for Fadnavis stated that under Section 125 of the Representation of Peoples Act, the offence is bailable and also cited pending review petition before the Apex Court. Adv Ukey strongly opposed grant of bail and alleged that Fadnavis had deliberately skipped the court proceedings. He also charged Fadnavis with committing contempt of court and sought initiation of proceedings against him. However, the CJM court granted bail to former Chief Minister and adjourned the proceedings of this matter till March 30.
Fadnavis was accompanied by former Guardian Minister of district Chandrashekhar Bawankule, MLC Dr Parinay Fuke, Adv Uday Dable, Adv Praful Mohgaonkar, and Adv Siddhant Dharmadhikari. Later talking to reporters, Fadnavis stated that these cases were filed when he had participated in public agitations as corporator and he would present all facts before the court.
“I had filed all information in the affidavit as suggested by my lawyers and entire information was obtained from Nagpur Police under RTI,” he stated while pointing out that he had not faced any personal cases and in last two elections he had secured more than 50 per cent votes from South-West Nagpur constituency of State Legislative Assembly. “I am sure that I will get justice from the court”, Fadnavis stated. The City Police maintained tight security in Nyay Mandir premises. Fadnavis preferred to arrive in the court in the personal car of his counsel Sunil Manohar and presented himself before the CJM court located on the first floor of Nyay Mandir.