A special court in Mumbai on Friday remanded advocate Satish Uke, who is known for filing petitions against senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis, to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) till April 6, along with his brother, on charges of money laundering.
The duo was taken into custody for an alleged land grab of 1.5 acres and for forging documents related to the deal in Nagpur. On March 31, Mr. Uke's residence in Nagpur was searched by the central agency and he was subsequently arrested. His laptop, cell phone and some documents have been seized by the ED.
Mr. Uke attained notoriety after being charged with criminal contempt by the Bombay High Court on two occasions. In February 2017, the Nagpur Bench of the High Court had directed him to forfeit ₹1 lakh of the ₹2 lakh he had deposited in a criminal contempt case. He also filed a petition on the suspicious death of Sessions Judge B. H. Loya, who was presiding over the trial in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case, and had died reportedly due to a heart attack in Nagpur in 2014. Mr. Uke's plea sought a police probe into the death and had made Mr. Fadnavis and BJP leader Amit Shah a party to the case.
The advocate was also representing Congress State unit president Nana Patole against senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla in the alleged case of phone-tapping of Ministers.
