MVA minister Bacchu Kadu gets jail for concealing info

Bacchu Kadu says the case pertained to an inadvertent mistake in his nomination affidavit for the 2014 Assembly polls which he won. File pic

A Court in Amravati district has found Minister of State for School Education, Omprakash alias Bacchu Kadu, guilty of suppressing information about immovable assets in the 2014 Assembly election affidavit, and pronounced a sentence of two-month rigorous imprisonment along with a penalty of ₹25,000 against him.

After the verdict, the JMFC court in Chandur Bazar granted Kadu bail. The minister welcomed the ‘wrong verdict' and vowed to appeal in the higher courts. The case was probed and filed in the court based on a complaint lodged in 2017.

Candidates contesting elections are required to furnish an affidavit containing information such as their assets, liabilities, educational qualifications and criminal cases/complaints, if any. Failure for filing an affidavit or giving false information is a penal offence. Conviction in such an offence does not disqualify the elected representative.

‘I respect the verdict'

An MLA from Achalpur who heads a regional party, Kadu said the case pertained to an inadvertent mistake in his nomination affidavit for the 2014 Assembly polls which he won. He said the government had formed a housing society for the legislators before 2014 and stood guarantor for our loans taken against these flats in Mumbai. "I mentioned the loan amount in the affidavit, but forgot to give the details of the property. Yet, I welcome and respect the wrong verdict," he said, adding the case will now go into appeal from his side.

He said the case was created by some people with a motive. "The incident happened in Achalpur, but the complaint was registered in Asegaon police station, where a police officer whom I had exposed in a corruption case, worked in collaboration with some people. I am confident that the higher judiciary will give me justice when I go into appeal."