The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, seeking a stay on his conviction in a coal scam case, to enable him to contest the upcoming state assembly polls.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar refused to interfere with the October 18 order of the Delhi High Court refusing the stay on his conviction, which happened in 2017.
Polling for the 81-member Jharkhand assembly will be held in two phases on November 13 and November 20, respectively, and the counting of votes will take place on November 23.
On December 13, 2017, Koda, former coal secretary H C Gupta, former Jharkhand chief secretary A K Basu and Koda's close aide Vijay Joshi were sentenced to three years in prison by a trial court for alleged corrupt practices and criminal conspiracy in the allocation of the Rajhara North Coal Block in the state to Kolkata-based company Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Limited (VISUL).
It had imposed fines of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 1 lakh on VISUL, Koda and Gupta, respectively, in the UPA-era coal scam. Basu was further saddled with a Rs 1 lakh fine.
The convicts were however granted bail during the pendency of their appeals.
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