Manikrao Kokate
Nashik/Mumbai: NCP minister Manikrao Kokate was divested of all his ministerial portfolios on Wednesday, hours after a court in Nashik issued warrants for his and his brother Vijay’s arrest in a 1995 EWS housing quota cheating case. A day earlier, a sessions court in Nashik upheld the trial court’s Feb 20 judgment, convicting and sentencing the Kokate brothers to two years of rigorous imprisonment.Sources said CM Devendra Fadnavis wrote to governor Acharya Devvrat, recommending Kokate be divested of his portfolios (sports and youth welfare and minority development and aukaf) and that the portfolios be handed over to NCP chief and deputy CM Ajit Pawar. Devvrat issued a letter approving the CM’s recommendation, sources said.Kokate, who is the MLA from Sinnar, is the second NCP politician after Dhananjay Munde to have faced action since the Mahayuti alliance formed govt in Nov 2024. Munde had to step down in March after the CM called for his resignation over allegations linking his associate Valmik Karad to the murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh.While Nashik commissioner of police Sandeep Karnik said they had received a non-bailable warrant against Kokate and his brother, Bombay high court has posted the hearing of the minister’s application for relief on Friday. Kokate got admitted to Mumbai’s Leelavati Hospital on Wednesday.All these developments came on a day when a section of NCP functionaries said Kokate should resign. Though there has so far been no statement from NCP on Kokate’s fate, the opposition said merely divesting him of portfolios was not enough and he should be disqualified with immediate effect.Earlier in the day, the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Rupali C Narwadiya in Nashik rejected Kokate’s application citing medical grounds to seek four days to surrender and issued the arrest warrants.
