Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim relief to Maharashtra Sports Minister Manikrao Kokate by suspending the execution of his prison sentence in a decades-old cheating and forgery case, while making it clear that his conviction will remain in force.
Justice R. N. Laddha passed the order while hearing Kokate’s plea challenging rulings of the Nashik Sessions Court, which had recently upheld a two-year imprisonment awarded to him in connection with the fraudulent allotment of government flats. The court allowed Kokate’s request for bail pending the final hearing of his appeal but declined to provide a stay on the conviction itself.
Kokate, an MLA from the Sinnar constituency in Nashik district and a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party faction headed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, approached the High Court seeking urgent intervention. His counsel argued that the continued conviction could have serious political consequences, including disqualification from the Assembly and loss of ministerial office.
The legal proceedings stem from a magistrate court judgment delivered earlier this year, which found Kokate and his brother Sunil Kokate guilty of using forged documents to secure flats under a government housing quota. The trial court had sentenced both to two years of imprisonment.
Following the conviction, the Nashik Sessions Court had initially provided temporary relief by suspending the sentence. However, in a subsequent ruling in December, the Sessions Court reaffirmed the two-year jail term, prompting Kokate to move the High Court immediately for relief.
The case itself traces its origins back nearly three decades. In 1995, former minister Tukaram Dighole lodged a complaint alleging that the Kokate brothers manipulated official records to illegally obtain residential flats under the Chief Minister’s discretionary housing scheme.
