Nagpur: Lawyer Satish Ukey, who filed case against Fadnavis, booked under MCOCA

Nagpur-based lawyer Satish Mahadevrao Uke and his associates, who had lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against then Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, have been charged under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in connection with a land grab case, the police said on Wednesday.

The order to book him under the anti-organised crime law was issued by Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar on Tuesday. Uke is now in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate. The case centres around the alleged illegal takeover of 4,100 square metres of land owned by the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) in Mouza Babulkheda in the city.

Uke and the other accused are facing charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy, as outlined in a complaint filed by Pankaj Ramesh Patil, the divisional officer of NIT, on January 5, 2023, said the police. An investigation has revealed that the group orchestrated the land grab using fraudulent documents, the police said. It has been alleged that they sold illegally acquired plots, estimated at Rs 7.43 crore, to several individuals using bogus documents.

Earlier, Uke had approached a court, seeking criminal proceedings against Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Uke had alleged that cases of cheating and forgery had been registered against Fadnavis in 1996 and 1998 but the BJP leader did not disclose it in his poll affidavit ahead of the 2014 assembly elections.