A court here on Tuesday sentenced former minister Anosh Ekka, five of his family members and an associate to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped fines of Rs 50 lakh on each of them in a case of assets disproportionate to known sources of income.

The Jharkhand Party president and the six others will have to undergo an additional year under simple judicial custody if they fail to deposit the fine amount. The special CBI court of Anil Kumar Mishra also ordered attachment of properties of Ekka and other convicts in the case worth Rs 16.82 crore.

Besides Anosh, the court sentenced his wife Menon Ekka, brothers Gidiyan and Ibrahim Ekka, brother-in-law Jaykant Bara, nephew Roshan Minz, and associate Deepak Lakra. They were taken into custody and forwarded to Birsa Munda Central Jail.

Anosh was in judicial custody during the trial for more than two and half years, which will be deducted from the total period of incarceration.

This is the second criminal case in which Anosh has been convicted. He was the MLA from Kolebira when the Simdega district court in July 2018 sentenced him to life imprisonment for murdering a para teacher, Manoj Kumar, ahead of the 2014 Assembly election.

Anosh lost membership of the House and was disqualified from contesting any election. Later, he was released on bail by the high court.

The jail term to the entire family will lead to a leadership crisis in the Jharkhand Party which Anosh was trying to revive after the Assembly election last year in which his daughter Ireen Ekka lost the election from Kolebira miserably.

Anosh had won the Kolebira seat in 2005, 2009 and 2014 and he was a minister in successive coalition governments led by Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren.

“As a minister during 2006 and 2008 he amassed assets in his name as well as his relatives by misusing his official position,” said an official of the CBI, which investigated the corruption case.

The CBI had produced 158 witnesses, and the court examined 219 witnesses that Anosh produced in his defence. He claimed that what the CBI was claiming as ill-gotten assets were gifts he had received from people and relatives.

The CBI contended that he acquired enormous assets within three years in his name and in the name of his family members. He floated a company, Ekka Construction, in the name of his wife and relatives and got government work orders. He acquired properties under 108 sale deeds, CBI sources said.

The court had concluded hearing of the case on February 12.

The complaint against him was originally lodged by Binod Kumar, a social activist from Deoghar district, before the state vigilance bureau in the year 2008. In November that year, the bureau lodged an FIR against Anosh and others. Later, the case was transferred to the CBI following a Jharkhand High Court order of August 2010. The CBI filed two charge sheets in August 2012.

The Enforcement Directorate is also investigating a money laundering case against him.