A court in Baramati in Pune district issued a summons to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar for an alleged remark threatening water cuts in a village if it did not vote for then colleague and sitting MP Supriya Sule in the 2019 general elections.
Pawar has been asked to remain present in court on December 16, said advocate Sumesh Negulpelli, lawyer for petitioner Suresh Khopade.
Khopade, a former IPS officer, was contesting on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket against Sule at the time.
A video clip of the remark, made on the eve of polling day that year, had gone viral on social media.
Judicial Magistrate First Class DP Pujari issued a summons after observing there was sufficient ground to take cognisance of the allegations, said Negulpelli on Thursday.
The offence is punishable under section 171-F (undue influence or personation at an election) of the Indian Penal Code, he said.
"The court issued a summon directing Pawar to remain present in the court on December 16. The order is from November 19 but it was uploaded on the court's website today," he said.
"A private complaint was filed by the petitioner in 2014. We presented a video-audio clip to the court of the alleged threatening remarks. We also presented an audio copy of the speech he had made in a poll campaign during that period. We had sent these two clips to the forensic lab, which confirmed that the voice samples matched," the lawyer said.
The police had filed a report stating no case was made out against Pawar, after which a protest petition was filed in court stating there was other evidence as well, Negulpelli said.
