In addition to Fadnavis, the bench also issued notices to Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta and others.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notice to former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in connection with a writ petition alleging undue favour by the Fadnavis-led government in transferring the accounts of police personnel, and those of beneficiaries of some schemes, to Axis Bank.

In addition to Fadnavis, the bench also issued notices to Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta, state Director General of Police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal and the Additional Chief Secretary of the state Home department. The bench of Justice R K Deshpande and Justice Amit Borkar asked the respondents to reply to the notices within eight weeks.

The petition by one Mohnish Jabalpure was filed in August 2019, and was later made a PIL on the order of Justice Z A Haq. The petitioner had initially made Fadnavis’s wife, Amruta Fadnavis, a respondent but had later amended the petition to remove her name.

On Thursday, the petitioner’s lawyer Satish Uke told the court that Fadnavis had “criminal antecedents” and cited several cases to support his claim. He alleged that the transfer of accounts to Axis Bank from the State Bank of India (SBI) happened due to a government circular dated May 15, 2017, which directed all police heads to sign Memorandums ofan Understanding (MoU) with the private bank. This, the petitioner’s lawyer further alleged, was because Fadnavis’s wife Amruta was working with the bank.