Five-time Congress MLA and former Maharashtra Minister Sunil Kedar has been disqualified from the state legislative Assembly following his conviction and five-year jail term in the cooperative bank scam worth Rs 150 crore which surfaced in 2002. He was convicted by a magistrate’s court in Nagpur on Friday (22nd December) for misappropriating funds at the Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB).
The senior Congress leader from the Vidarbha region is considered close to the Gandhi family. He is a five-time MLA from Saoner in Nashik district and was a minister in the former Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
A gazette notification was issued on Saturday (23rd December) by legislature secretary Jitendra Bhole informing about his disqualification from the state assembly. As per the gazette order, the Congress leader stood disqualified as an MLA from the date of his conviction on 22nd December under provisions of Article 19 (1) (e) of the Constitution of India and Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The order read, “Sunil Kedar has been convicted under sections 406, 409, 468, 471, 120 (B) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, the court of 2nd Assistant Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nagpur (vide CR No. 101/2002) which was followed by five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 12.5 lakh on 22 December. Consequent upon the conviction, he stands disqualified from being a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in terms of provisions of Section 191 (1) (e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of People Act, 1951.”
Congress leader’s Counsel Deven Chauhan stated that they would approach the sessions court on Tuesday to challenge CJM Jyoti Pekhle-Purkar’s judgement passed on Friday. Speaking with Times of India, he said, “We will seek suspension of conviction, stay, suspension of sentence, and bail.”
Notably, on 22nd December (Friday), the court of 2nd Assistant Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nagpur sentenced Congress MLA Sunil Kedar and five others to five years imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 12.5 lakh in connection with the alleged Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB) scam. The six convicts, including Kedar, were fined Rs 10 lakh each.
As per the prosecution, when Kedar was the Chairman, NDCCB lost Rs 150 crore in government securities (G-sec) in 2002 as rules were flouted while investing funds through Home Trade Securities, an investment firm.
Subsequently, Kedar and 11 others were charged in the 2002 scam case, involving former general manager Ashok Choudhary, chief accountant Suresh Peshkar, Mahendra Agrawal, Shreeprakash Poddar, Subodh Bhandari, Kanan Mewawala, Nandkishor Trivedi, Amit Verma, and stockbroker Ketan Seth from Mumbai.
In her judgement, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Pekhle-Purkar stated that Kedar and one other accused were entrusted with the entire stake of the bank. She noted that the fund in question was the hard-earned money of the people and members of the bank, most of whom were poor farmers from Nagpur.
The court pointed out that the objective of the cooperative sector is to uplift the status of the economically marginalised sections of society.
The court said Kedar, who was chairman at the time, and then general manager Ashok Choudhary were entrusted to invest the funds in the manner prescribed by the law but they committed breach of trust. The order stated that such criminal breach of trust is a serious offence.
