The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday arrested Nagpur-based lawyer Satish Uke and his brother Pradeep in a money-laundering case, officials said.

Satish Uke has in the past filed petitions against former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Uke had in 2018 filed a plea before the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court for safe custody of all documents related to the death of CBI judge B.H. Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. Days after Loya died, Union home minister Amit Shah was discharged from the case in December 2014 by the new judge.

Uke had claimed that Loya, who died on an out-of-town trip to attend a wedding, was killed by radioactive isotope poisoning.

ED officials said the brothers were taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act over the purchase of a plot in Nagpur and were expected to be produced before a court on Friday.

Uke was raided at 6am by an ED team that was accompanied by CRPF men. His house in the Parvati Nagar area of Nagpur was searched. The lawyer and his brother were later taken to the ED office in the Seminary Hills area of the city for interrogation around 11am.

A police officer said the ED team took along Uke’s laptop, some documents and four cellphones belonging to his family members for examination.

Uke has filed several petitions in courts against BJP leaders, especially Fadnavis. In one of his applications, he has sought criminal proceedings against Fadnavis for the “non-disclosure” of criminal cases in his election affidavit.

Uke has alleged that the BJP leader filed a false affidavit in 2014 by hiding two criminal cases — of cheating and forgery — registered against him in 1996 and 1998.

Uke is also the lawyer for Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, who has filed a Rs 500-crore defamation suit in a civil court in Nagpur against IPS officer and former Maharashtra intelligence chief Rashmi Shukla and others for alleged illegal tapping of his phone.