A court in Nashik on Wednesday stayed the conviction of Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Manikrao Kokate in a cheating and forgery case of 1995, reported news agency PTI.
A magistrate court had on February 20 convicted the NCP leader and his brother Sunil Kokate and sentenced them to two-year imprisonment in the cheating case pertaining to submitting fake documents to get flats under a government quota, reported PTI.
The brothers later filed an appeal, seeking a stay on the magistrate`s order, before District Judge 1 and Additional Sessions Judge (Nashik) N V Jiwane, reported PTI.
The sessions court on Wednesday allowed their appeal. The detailed order was not available yet.
While the magistrate court last month convicted Manikrao Kokate and his brother, it acquitted two others accused in the same cheating case, registered in 1995 on a complaint of former minister, late T S Dighole, reported PTI.
As per the prosecution, Manikrao Kokate and his brother were allotted two flats meant for the Low Income Group (LIG) on College Road in Yeolakar Mala area of Nashik under the chief minister`s 10 per cent discretionary quota, reported PTI.
To be eligible, they made false claims of belonging to the LIG category and not owning a house in the city, it was alleged.
After Dighole approached the police, a case of cheating, forgery and other offences under the Indian Penal Code was registered against the Kokate brothers and two others at Sarkarwada police station in Nashik.
Legislature or Guv to take decision on minister Kokate after court order: Fadnavis
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said a decision on state Agriculture Minister Manikrao Kokate, convicted in a cheating case, will be taken by the legislature or the governor after the court`s order on the matter.
NCP MLA Kokate was last month convicted by a magistrate`s court in Nashik in the cheating case and sentenced to two years in jail. A sessions court there later suspended his sentence and will give its decision on March 5 on Kokate`s plea seeking a stay on the magistrate`s order.
Leader of Opposition in the state legislative council Ambadas Danve raised the matter in the House on Monday, seeking to know what was the government`s stand on it.
“The agriculture minister (Kokate) has been convicted and there has been no stay on the verdict by the higher court so far,” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
