Cong leader Sunil Kedar disqualified from Maharashtra assembly after conviction in bank scam
Mumbai (PTI): Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister Sunil Kedar has been disqualified from the state legislative assembly following his conviction by a court for misappropriation of funds at the Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB).
A gazette order of the state legislature secretariat issued on Saturday said Kedar stands disqualified as MLA from the date of his conviction on December 22 under provisions of Article 19 (1) (e) of the Constitution of India and Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The order said Kedar's constituency Saoner, located in Nagpur district, has become vacant from the date of his conviction.
A magistrate's court in Nagpur on Friday sentenced Kedar and five others to five years' rigourous imprisonment for misappropriation of funds at the NDCCB.
The case dates back to 2002.
Kedar, the five-time MLA, was convicted under Indian Penal Code Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating, 471 (whoever fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document which he knows or has reason to believe to be a forged document), 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention).
The six convicts were also fined Rs 10 lakh each.
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 Nagpur.
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.
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Over 17,000 people went missing in Delhi in 2024: NCRB
New Delhi (PTI): A total of 23,058 people, comprising 9,482 men and 13,576 women, were reported missing in Delhi in 2024, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Of the total, 5,491 were children below the age of 18 — 1,571 boys, 3,920 girls.
The city recorded 17,567 fresh adult missing persons cases in 2024, comprising 7,911 men and 9,656 women.
According to the NCRB data, released on Wednesday, 14,637 men, 18,238 women and six transgender persons were still missing from previous years.
At the latest count, in 2024, Delhi had a total of 55,939 missing persons cases — 24,119 men, 31,814 women and six transgender persons.
In 2024, police traced or collected 28,392 missing persons, including 12,182 men, 16,208 women and two transgender persons.
Only half of the men and half of the women who went missing could be traced.
A total of 27,547 missing persons – 11,937 men, 15,606 women, four transgender persons — were yet to be untraced by the end of the year, the data showed.
The data also revealed that 5,352 children from previous years remained untraced at the beginning of 2024.
The number of still missing boys was 1,621, and the number of missing girls was 3,729. Two transgender children were yet to be found.
After adding the pending cases from previous years, the total number of missing children cases handled in 2024 rose to 10,843.
The police traced or recovered 6,762 missing children — 2,030 boys, 4,732 girls.
The recovery rate stood at 63.6 per cent for boys and 61.9 per cent for girls, while no transgender child was traced.
By the end of 2024, a total of 4,081 children remained untraced, 1,162 of them boys, 2,917 girls, and two transgender children.
