A Nagpur court on Friday acquitted Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in a case pertaining to his alleged failure to disclose criminal cases against him, PTI reported.
In 2014, a lawyer named Satish Uke had filed a complaint alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party leader did not disclose the cases in his election affidavit that year. The cases had been registered in 1996 and 1998.
In April, Fadnavis had told the court that his failure to disclose the cases was not deliberate but was an oversight on the part of his lawyer. He had informed the court that his lawyer had been asked to collect all details about the pending cases against him and that the lawyer failed to collect the required information, according to PTI.
On Friday, Civil Judge SS Jadhav accepted Fadnavis’ argument and said there did not appear to be any intention on his part to not disclose the information in his poll affidavit.
This was the second time a trial in the case was held.
A civil judge in 2014 had initially ruled against Fadnavis. However, this ruling was overturned by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court.
Uke had then challenged the High Court’s verdict before the Supreme Court, which in 2019, ruled that a case had been made to prosecute Fadnavis and ordered a fresh trial in the case.
Fadnavis had later filed a review petition against this order, which was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2020.
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