The Orissa High Court on Monday granted relief to Congress legislator Mohammed Moquim by slapping an interim stay on the execution of a conviction order passed by a special vigilance court, which had last month awarded him three years of rigorous imprisonment in a loan fraud case.
A single-judge bench of Justice B.P. Routray, which allowed the Barabati-Cuttack MLA’s criminal appeal petition, also granted him a regular bail. It directed Mr. Moquim to furnish a bail bond of ₹1 lakh with two sureties of the same amount.
Calling for the case records from the lower court, the High Court adjourned the matter to October 13. Mr. Moquim and three others, including former IAS officer Vinod Kumar, were convicted by the vigilance court on September 29. All the four were sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of ₹50,000 each for causing pecuniary loss to government-owned Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC).
They were found guilty of criminal misconduct, forgery, cheating, criminal conspiracy and showing undue official favour in releasing funds from ORHDC under the guise of loans meant for the rural poor. The anti-corruption wing of Odisha Police had registered a case in this regard way back in the year 2000 when Vinod Kumar was officiating as the Managing Director of ORHDC.
Fearing disqualification of his membership from the State Legislative Assembly as per the provisions in Chapter III of the Representation of Peoples Act, Mr. Moquim had moved the High Court seeking suspension of his conviction. Interestingly, BJP leader and senior advocate of the High Court Pitambar Acharya is conducting the case on behalf of the Congress leader.
