NCP minister moves HC to quash order of probe against him

Maharashtra Minister for Medical Education Jitendra Awhad today filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking to quash a Magistrate's order asking police to probe allegations of "false" affidavit filed by him during the 2009 assembly elections from Kalwa-Mumbra constituency.
The petition came up for hearing before Justice M L Tahilyani, who adjourned the matter to October 1 after Awhad's lawyer sought one week's time to argue the case.
Awhad, an NCP leader, has challenged the order of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Thane, asking Kalva police on December 10, 2013, to probe allegations of not disclosing in the affidavit about the ownership of a flat in Adarsh Society.

The Magistrate had given the order on a private complaint filed by activist Praveen Wategaonkar, who alleged that Awhad had not disclosed in his affidavit that he had ownership of a flat in the controversial Adarsh Society.
According to the complainant, Awhad had allegedly made payments of Rs 60.37 lakh to the Adarsh Society from time to time between 2004 and 2010. Non-disclosure of this information was an offence under IPC and Representation of People's Act, the complaint added.
Awhad said the order of the Thane Magistrate should be quashed as it was barred by the law of limitation (which prescribes that a law suit should be filed within a stipulated period). While the complaint was filed in 2012, the elections were held in 2009 and hence the law of limitation came into play, he argued in the petition.

However, Wategaonkar said he came to know about the payments made by Awhad to Adarsh Society only during 2011 from the high court records, as it was a private transaction between two parties. Hence, he filed the complaint only after he learnt about Awhad owning a flat in the controversial housing society.
Earlier, the court has granted an ex-parte stay on the proceedings before the Thane court.