Relief for NCP leader Manikrao Kokate in 1995 case, HC grants bail on Rs 1 lakh bond

The Bombay High Court has granted relief to NCP leader Manikrao Kokate in a 1995 cheating case. He has been granted bail on a bond of Rs 1 lakh.

The Bombay High Court was hearing an application filed by Kokate. He had sought suspension of his sentence and bail and had approached the High Court while challenging the orders of Nashik Sessions Court that had upheld his two-year jail sentence in the cheating and forgery case.

Kokate is a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and represents the Sinnar Assembly constituency in the Nashik district. According to a report by the Free Press Journal, Kokate's lawyer, Aniket Nikam, had sought an urgent hearing. He said that the sentence could have led the leader to lose his ministerial post and his MLA membership.

It was on February 20 that a Nashik court magistrate had convicted Kokate and his brother and had sentenced them to two years' jail in the case.