Mumbai: Sunil Kedar, a senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister, has been disqualified from the state legislative assembly following his conviction for misappropriation of funds at the Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB). A gazette order issued by the state legislature secretariat on Saturday announced Kedar's disqualification under the provisions of Article 19 (1) (e) of the Constitution of India and Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, effective from the date of his conviction on December 22.

Kedar, a five-time MLA from the Saoner constituency in Nagpur district, was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment along with five others by a magistrate's court in Nagpur. The conviction is related to a case dating back to 2002, where the NDCCB reportedly lost ₹125 crore in government securities due to the flouting of rules in fund investments through Home Trade Private Limited. At that time, Kedar served as the chairman of the bank.

The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Pekhle-Purkar, in her judgment, emphasized that Kedar and another accused, then-general manager Ashok Choudhary, were entrusted with the entire stake of the bank. The court highlighted that the misappropriated funds represented the hard-earned money of the bank's members, mostly impoverished farmers from Nagpur. Kedar and Choudhary were expected to invest the funds according to the law, but their actions constituted a breach of trust, leading to the loss of a significant amount of money.

The court expressed the seriousness of the offense and stressed that individuals in high positions bear greater responsibility to ensure the prudent use of cooperative sector funds. The conviction resulted in a five-year imprisonment for Kedar and a ₹10 lakh fine for each of the six convicts. This legal development has left the Saoner constituency vacant from the date of Kedar's conviction, according to the gazette order.

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