Non-disclosure of cases in poll affidavit: Fadnavis appears before court

NAGPUR: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday appeared before a court here in connection with an application seeking action against him for alleged non-disclosure of criminal cases in his election affidavit in 2014 and denied all the allegations.

Fadnavis’s statement was recorded in written format under a provision of section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Under this provision, the court puts forth questions to an accused on the evidence relied upon by the complainant in the case.

Fadnavis appeared before Civil Judge V A Deshmukh at 12 noon with his lawyers when they were given 35 pages with 110 questions.

Fadnavis himself wrote down the answers to each question after discussion with his lawyers.

The BJP leader denied all the contentions and allegations made in the complaint and said he had not committed any “crime or wrongdoing”, his lawyer told reporters later.

Fadnavis left the court premises after one and a half hours.

The court posted the matter for final arguments on May 6. Satish Uke, an advocate, had filed the application seeking criminal proceedings against Fadnavis alleging that cases of cheating and forgery had been registered against the BJP leader in 1996 and 1998 but he did not disclose this information in his poll affidavit ahead of the 2014 assembly elections.

Uke is presently in jail after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering.