Maharashtra Agriculture Minister and Naitonalist Congress Party leader Manikrao Kokate was on Thursday sentenced to two years' imprisonment by a court in Nashik in a 1995 case where he was charged with submitting fake documents to get flats under a government quota.
The minister told reporters later that the court had granted him bail, and he would move the high court against the judgment.
The Nashik district and sessions court also convicted his brother Sunil Kokate in the same case, registered in 1995 on the complaint of former minister, late T S Dighole.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the two brothers.
The court acquitted two other accused in the case Kokate could possibly attract disqualification as an MLA if he does not get any relief from the high court.
Talking to reporters, the minister said the case was filed by Dighole with whom he had political enmity.
"I have decided to file an appeal against the verdict. We will do everything in accordance with the law....we will go to the High Court. I have been granted bail by the sessions court," he said.
As per the prosecution, Kokate and his brother were allotted two flats meant for the Low Income Group (LIG) on College Road in Yeolakar Mala area in Nashik under the chief minister's 10 per cent discretionary quota.
To be eligible, they made false claims of belonging to the LIG category and not owning a house in Nashik, it was alleged.
After Dighole approached the police, a case of cheating, forgery and other offences under the Indian Penal Code was registered against the Kokate brothers and two others at Sarkarwada police station in Nashik.
The rival Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar demanded that Kokate should resign following the verdict.
He would be the second minister of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government to find himself in trouble.
NCP leader and cabinet minister Dhananjay Munde is facing the heat after his close aide was arrested in an extortion case related to the brutal murder of a village sarpanch in Beed district in December 2024. -- PTI
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