A sessions court here on Saturday declined to stay the conviction of former Maharashtra minister and Congress leader Sunil Kedar in a bank scam case and also rejected his plea for suspension of the five-year sentence handed to him by a lower court last week.
District Judge RS Patil also rejected the bail plea of Kedar.
A magistrate’s court in Nagpur on December 22 sentenced Kedar and five others to five years’ rigorous imprisonment for misappropriation of funds at the Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB) in 2002. Kedar was chairman of the bank at the time of the scam.
The court also fined the six convicts with Rs 10 lakh each.
Keadar had challenged his conviction and sentencing before the sessions court through an application filed by his lawyer Deven Chavhan, which was heard on Saturday.
As per the prosecution, the NDCCB lost Rs 125 crore in government securities in 2002 as rules were flouted while investing funds through Home Trade Private Limited.
Kedar was convicted under Indian Penal Code Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating, 471 (whoever fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document which he knows or has reason to believe to be a forged document), 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention).
Following his conviction, the state legislature secretariat disqualified Kedar as MLA from the date of his conviction on December 22 under provisions of Article 19 (1) (e) of the Constitution of India and Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
