Court declines to stay conviction of Cong leader Sunil Kedar, rejects bail plea

Nagpur: A Sessions Court here on Saturday declined to stay the conviction of Congress leader Sunil Kedar to a five-year jail term in a bank scam case and also rejected his bail plea.

Additional District Sessions Judge R.S. Patil-Bhosale passed orders, coming as a setback to Kedar, who was convicted and sentenced on December 22 along with five others, for their role in the Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank scam of 2002.

The court held that if the accused is granted bail or the sentence is suspended, it could send a wrong message among the masses, and dismissed Kedar's pleas.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Nitin Telgote had strongly opposed the plea for bail and suspension of sentence on grounds that the case pertains to public funds that belong to thousands of poor farmers, and a case was also registered as per the RBI, SEBI and Cooperatives Department rules.

Kedar was the NDCCB Chairman at the relevant time when the scam erupted in 2001-2002, and the matter was pending for the past 21 years.

Soon after his conviction last week, Kedar, a Congress legislator from Savner was unseated from the Maharashtra Assembly.

He had challenged the conviction through his advocate Deven Chavhan.

Among other things, the prosecution contended that the NDCCB incurred a loss of around Rs 150 crore due to faulty investments in government securities flouting rules through certain private entities.