NASHIK: A court in Nashik in Maharashtra on Thursday sentenced state agriculture minister and NCP leader Manikrao Kokate to two years in jail and fined him Rs 50,000 in a 30-year-old case of cheating and submitting fake documents to get flats under government quota.
The minister told reporters later that the court had granted him bail, and he would move the High Court against the judgement.
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 here 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 the city, 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 here.
The rival NCP (SP) demanded that Kokate should resign following the verdict.
He would be the second minister of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in the BJP-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.