Maha: Manikrao Kokate’s ministership hangs in balance as court upholds two-year sentence

Mumbai, Dec 16 NCP received a major blow after the Nashik session court upheld the two-year sentence handed down to sports minister Manikrao Kokate in the case of illegally acquiring a government flat using forged documents.

In the wake of the court’s order, Kokate’s ministership hangs in the balance. Those who filed an intervention petition opposing bail for Minister Kokate have submitted documents to the Bombay High Court.

Minister Kokate had hogged the headlines after a videotape of him playing cards in the state council went viral.

Amid strong demand by the opposition for his resignation, he was divested of the Agriculture Department and later given the Sports Department. The lower court had sentenced Minister Kokate and his brother Vijay Kokate to two years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 each for defrauding the government by acquiring a government-quota flat from the Low-Income Group using fake documents.

In the appeal, the Sessions Court had already granted bail to the Kokate brothers and stayed the implementation of the sentence.

Kokate's lawyers had argued before the court that the Kokate brothers would suffer a loss if the sentence was not stayed while the appeal was pending. The original complaint in this matter was filed by the late former minister Tukaram Dighole. When the Sessions Court granted a temporary stay on Minister Kokate's sentence, Advocate Anjali Dighole-Rathod, the daughter of former minister Dighole, filed an intervention petition. Her side was represented by Advocate Ashutosh Rathod, who later informed that the Sessions Court had upheld the sentence of the lower court.

The Sessions Court, after reviewing the records, clearly observed that the flats Kokate acquired were not according to the norms.

Advocate Rathod told reporters that Minister Manikrao Kokate was morally expected to resign after the original sentence. He further added that they have started the process of submitting documents to the High Court to ensure he does not get bail.

Meanwhile, NCP SP Rohit Pawar demanded that the government should now immediately dismiss Minister Kokate from his post after the Sessions Court upheld the two-year sentence in the case of defrauding the government by illegally occupying flats based on forged documents.

He said in his post X, “The farmers' dignity has been trampled, online addresses have been doled out, and now with the sentence upheld even in the case of duping the government itself, this government—always spouting empty talk about ethics while shedding crocodile tears—how many more days will it keep protecting them? That's what remains to be seen... I have complete faith in the judicial system, so the so-called defamation suit filed against me by Kokate will also be dismissed outright by the court in the same way.”

--IANS

sj/dan

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