The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said it has filed a “prosecution complaint” (charge sheet) under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Nagpur-based lawyer Satish Uke and his brother Pradip Uke in connection with an alleged land grabbing case against them.
In an official statement, the ED said the prosecution complaint was filed before a special PMLA court in Mumbai on May 26 and it took cognisance of it on June 9.
The PMLA case against Uke brothers was filed on the basis of the FIRs registered against them by the Nagpur Police (Ajni police station) in which they were charged with land grabbing in the district by creating “fake and forged” documents.
The brothers were arrested by the ED on March 31 from Nagpur after searches were carried out at their premises. They are currently in jail as part of judicial custody.
“Satish Uke and Pradip Uke had resorted to fraud and forgery and created fake power of attorney in the name of Chandrashekhar Namdevrao Matte and also forged signatures of government officials and usurped lands from the original owners with dubious and malafide intentions,” the ED alleged in its prosecution complaint.
“They have, thereafter, sold some of the lands and amassed huge amount through illegal means and thus have dealt with the proceeds of crime connected with the scheduled offence and thereby have committed offences under section 3 of the PMLA,” the agency further alleged, while adding that the proceeds of crime in the case have been quantified at Rs 38 crore. The lawyer is known for filing petitions against senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the last few years. In one of his applications, he had sought criminal proceedings against Fadnavis for “non-disclosure” of criminal cases in his election affidavit.
Uke had alleged that the BJP leader filed a false affidavit in 2014 by hiding two criminal cases – of cheating and forgery – registered against him in 1996 and 1998. He had also petitioned the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court seeking a police probe into the “suspicious and untimely” death of CBI judge BH Loya, who presided over the trial in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case. The Judge had died reportedly due to a heart attack in Nagpur in 2014.