Maharashtra agriculture minister Manikrao Kokate, brother get 2 years’ jail for fraud to secure EWS flats | India News

NASHIK: Maharashtra agriculture minister Manikrao Kokate and his brother, Vijay, on Thursday were convicted and sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment for securing a flat each in 1995 under the state govt’s 10% housing quota for economically weaker sections by fudging income documents.
Apart from two years’ RI for each of the five offences relating to cheating and forgery under the IPC (all sentences to run concurrently), additional chief judicial magistrate Rupali Narwadiya imposed a Rs 10,000 fine for each of the five offences; the amount comes to Rs 50,000 each. The court also directed Mhada and the Nashik deputy collector (urban land ceiling) to take measures to cancel allotment of the flats after the appeals period was over.
On a plea moved later, the court granted bail to the NCP functionary and his brother to enable them to appeal against their conviction before a sessions court in Nashik. Under the Representation of the People Act, a legislator attracts disqualification if convicted for two years or more, unless the conviction is stayed.
Kokate is the second minister of Ajit Pawar’s NCP to face the heat after Dhananjay Munde, who is under attack in the murder case of Massajog sarpanch in Beed district.
Kokate, who was in court, later told reporters, “It’s a 30-year-old politically motivated case. Then MLA and former minister Tukaram Dighole raised the matter, and a police complaint was registered against me by a govt official. I haven’t yet read the judgment but we will certainly file an appeal.”
The court said, “The accused no.1 at the time of the alleged incident was having post in a political party… also, he is an advocate and now he is a minister in agriculture department… therefore such approach of accused no.1 for getting the flats at a low rate by concealing information regarding his income is highly dreadful (sic).”