A Nagpur court acquitted on Friday Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for allegedly not mentioning the criminal cases filed against him in an election affidavit submitted in 2014.
The order was passed by Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate SS Jadhav after the Bharatiya Janata Party leader accepted that he failed to disclose the criminal cases.
However, the former Chief Minister said that it was not deliberate but an oversight on part of his lawyer, who was entrusted with the task.
The Judicial Magistrate further rejected a petition filed by Nagpur-based lawyer Satish Uke seeking initiation of criminal proceedings against Fadnavis for his alleged failure to disclose information required under sub-section (1) of Section 33A of the Representation of People Act, 1951.
The petition filed by Uke alleged that there were cases of cheating and forgery registered against Fadnavis in 1996 and 1998, which he did not disclose in his poll affidavit during the 2014 Assembly elections.
The Magistrate summoned the BJP leader to appear before the court in connection with the complaint. Fadnavis appeared before the court on April 15, 2023.
Refuting the charges against him, he submitted through his lawyer that there had been an inadvertent mistake while collating information about pending criminal cases.
He apprised the court that his lawyer had been asked to collect all details about the pending cases against him and that his lawyer failed to collate the required information.
The BJP leader further assured the court that there was no intention to deliberately conceal the information about the criminal cases or their non-inclusion in the poll affidavit.
Earlier in 2014, a civil judge had initially ruled against Fadnavis. Thie order was overturned by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court.
Uke then moved the Supreme Court, which ruled that a case had been made to prosecute Fadnavis.
The Apex Court, therefore, set aside the verdict of the Bombay High Court and remanded the matter for trial afresh.
The top court of the country also dismissed a review petition filed by Fadnavis in 2020.
This led to the present case in the court of Civil Judge Jadhav, which acquitted the former Chief Minister today.