The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday searched the house of a lawyer who had filed several petitions against senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis over the years.
The central agency started searching the house of Nagpur-based lawyer Satish Uke at around 6 am and raids are also being conducted to check the land transactions.
Mr. Uke is notorious for being charged with criminal contempt by the Bombay High Court on two occasions. In February 2017, the Nagpur bench of the High Court had directed him to forfeit ₹1 lakh out of ₹2 lakh deposited in the criminal contempt case.
The court had said, “There is a definite, deliberate, motivated and well-considered attempt on the part of Satish Uke, which is evident to undermine the image of the judiciary in the assessment of the public…”
In July 2017, Mr Uke filed a petition before the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court and then the Supreme Court, seeking the disqualification of Mr Fadnavis as an MLA. Alleged non-disclosure of two criminal cases (forgery and fraud) in the 2014 election affidavit against him.
Mr. Uke had said that Mr. Fadnavis had hidden this information. On the affidavit filed by him before the election. He said that according to the Representation of the People Act, providing false information or concealing information is an offense punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.
He has also filed a petition in the Suspicious Death Case of Sessions Judge BH Loya, who was presiding over the trial in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh alleged fake encounter case and died allegedly of a heart attack in Nagpur in 2014. . The police was sought in Mr. Uke’s petition. The death was investigated and Mr. Fadnavis and BJP leader Amit Shah were made a party.