NAGPUR: A local court in Nagpur has issued a summon against former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, in connection with a case where he is accused of concealing information about two criminal matters against him in an election affidavit.
The summons was delivered at Fadnavis’s house in Nagpur. Fadnavis is MLA from Nagpur.
The development came on the day a new Shiv Sena-led government was sworn in Maharashtra.
A magistrate’s court, on November 1, had restored an application seeking criminal proceedings against the BJP leader for alleged non-disclosure. City-based lawyer Satish Uke had filed an application in the court seeking that criminal proceedings be initiated against Devendra Fadnavis.
The Bombay High Court had upheld the lower court’s earlier order dismissing Uke’s plea. But the Supreme Court, on October 1, directed the magistrate’s court to go ahead with the application filed by Satish Uke.
The magistrate’s court on November 4 said the case would be held as a summary criminal case, and issued notice.
Cases of cheating and forgery were filed against Fadnavis in 1996 and 1998, but charges were not framed in both the matters. Uke alleged that Fadnavis did not disclose this information in his election affidavits.
Fadnavis took oath as the chief minister of Maharashtra for a second time on Saturday with NCP leader Ajit Pawar by his side, who was made the Deputy Chief Minister. Days later, Ajit Pawar pulled the plug and returned to his party fold and resigned from the post, thus toppling the BJP government.
Uddhav Thackeray was then elected as the CM face for the Maha Aghadi alliance of NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena and on Thursday he took oath as the first Thackeray chief minister of Maharashtra.
Today, Fadnavis took to twitter to lash out at the newly-formed Maharashtra government saying that its first cabinet meeting was about House majority and not about the miseries of farmers in the state.