A magistrate's court here on Friday sentenced Congress MLA and former Maharashtra minister Sunil Kedar and five others to five years' rigourous imprisonment for misappropriation of funds at the Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB).

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate J V Pekhle-Purkar pronounced judgement in the case which dates back to 2002. The six were also fined Rs 10 lakh each.

Apart from Kedar, the accused include the general manager and directors of NDCCB and a director of Home Trade Private Limited, an investment firm. Three persons were acquitted.

Among other provisions, Kedar was held guilty under Indian Penal Code section 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant).

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 then chairman of the bank.

In her judgement, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Pekhle-Purkar said Kedar and one other accused were entrusted with the entire stake of the bank, adding that the fund in question was hard earned money of the people and members of the bank, most of whom are poor farmers from here.

The court pointed out that the objective and purpose of the cooperative sector is to enhance the status of the economically marginalised sections of the 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.

Such criminal breach of trust is a serious offence, the judge said in her order.

The loss of such a huge amount of money is sufficient enough to bring down the financial position of the bank, which in turn would affect thousands of members and staff of the entity, the court said.

People holding high posts are vested with more responsibilities to ensure not even a single rupee of a member is wasted in any manner, the court order said.

"Therefore, the breach of trust by such responsible persons invites this court to deal with such persons with steel hands. In view of the seriousness of the offences, no leniency can be shown to the accused persons," the court asserted.

Those sentenced in the case under sections 409 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code and section 248 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are Kedar, general manager Ashok Choudhary, Ketan Seth, Amit Verma, Subodh Bhandari and Nandkishore Trivedi.

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