Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis received a setback today when the Supreme Court over turned a verdict of the Bombay High Court that gave him a clean chit and instead ordered a fresh trial to investigate the case where he has been charged for allegedly concealing facts related to criminal cases registered against him in an election petition filed by him before the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections in 2014.
There are two criminal cases against him that date back to the years 1996 and 2003.
The trial court had dismissed the petition to prosecute the CM for concealing this fact under Section 125 A of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951. The said law deals with electoral offences related to concealment or providing false information in an election petition.
The petitioner had appealed to the Bombay High Court which too had dismissed the petition on May 3rd, 2018.
However, today the Supreme Court has issued instructions to the trial now to try the case afresh.
If found guilty, the accused can be rewarded an imprisonment term not exceeding six month and/or fine.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson, Nawab Malik has called for the resignation of the CM.
The Chief Minister will be contesting the 2019 Legislative Assembly elections from the Nagpur South West constituency.