DISTRICT Judge-12 and Additional Sessions Judge R S Patil (Bhosale), on Wednesday, turned down the applications filed by the prosecution seeking adjournment on the pleas filed by former minister and senior Congress leader Sunil Chhatrapal Kedar and three others for grant of stay on their conviction, suspension of the sentence and bail. In the applications, the District Government Pleaders Adv Nitin Telgote (Nagpur) and Adv Ajay Misar (Nashik) stated that the matter be adjourned till January 1 next as they wanted to file the written notes of the arguments on the four appeals. Adv Devendra Chauhan, counsel of Kedar pointed out that the court had given the opportunity to the prosecution in this regard and even the arguments in the matter were over. And, therefore, there was hardly any need for the adjournment.

 

Finally, the judge rejected the applications of the prosecution and decided to render his verdict on the pleas of the convicts on Thursday. Adv Gopal Agrawal, Adv Avinash Gupta, Adv Girish Purohit, Adv Zeeshan Haq appeared for the convicts Nandkishor Trivedi, Amit Verma, Ketan Seth and Ashok Choudhary respectively. Special Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Judge Jyoti Pekhale-Purkar, on Friday, had convicted Kedar, Ashok Namdeo Chaudhari (Nagpur), former NDCCB General Manager; Ketan Kantilal Seth, stock broker; Amit Sitapati Verma (Ahmedabad), Subodh Chandadayal Bhandari and Nandkishor Shankarkal Trivedi (both from Mumbai) in NDCCB scam cases and awarded five years’ rigorous imprisonment to them with a fine of Rs 10 lakh each. Kedar, who is still hospitalised in Government Medical College, was disqualified from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly soon after he was convicted on December 22 for his involvement in the infamous scam that surfaced more than two decades ago.