Bombay High Court rejects Congress leader Sunil Kedar’s plea for stay on conviction in NDCC Bank scam case

“An object of Legislatures in keeping away convicts from contesting elections is to be looked into while deciding such applications,” a single-judge bench of Justice Urmila Joshi-Phalke noted.

As per lawyers, the HC verdict will be a ‘roadblock’ for Kedar to contest upcoming Assembly elections, unless the Supreme Court grants him relief.

Kedar was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment by the Assistant Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nagpur along with a total fine of Rs 12.5 lakh on December 22, last year.

A day after his conviction, Kedar was disqualified from the Assembly as MLA. In January, this year, the said sentence was suspended by HC and Kedar was granted bail.

As per prosecution, Kedar had entered into a conspiracy with other co-accused and misappropriated funds of the NDCC Bank to the tune of Rs.117.51 crore under the pretext of investment made by the Bank in the Government Securities through private brokers.

Senior advocate S K Mishra, representing Kedar, argued that the sessions judge had passed a “mechanical order” without evaluating facts of the case.

However, Special Public Prosecutor Siddharth Dave opposed the plea and argued that considerations for suspension of sentence and stay to the conviction are different and no exceptional case was made out by Kedar in the present plea.