New Delhi [India], April 23 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the sentence of Mohammed Moquim, a Congress MLA from Cuttack-Barabati constituency in Odisha, in a corruption case.
A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta passed the order while hearing Congress MLA Moquim's appeal. The bench also issued notice to the state government on Moquim's appeal against the Odisha High Court's decision.
Moquim was represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohtagi and Muralidhar, along with an advocate on record, Mithu Jain.
In his appeal, Moquim challenged the Odisha High Court's decision on April 10, 2024, whereby the High Court upheld his conviction and sentence passed by the Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar.
The Bhubaneswar court, vide judgement and order dated September 29, 2022, had convicted the legislator in the corruption case and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years.
Moquim, in his petition, said that there was not even an iota of evidence, either documentary or oral, to prove that the petitioner has stood as Guarantor in the Loan of Rs 1.5 crore or that the loan has actually been disbursed to Metro Builders Pvt Ltd and there is no evidence on record to prove that he and his company, namely Metro Builders Pvt Ltd, have deceived or decepted any person.
According to the probe agency, the then managing director of the Orissa Rural Housing Development Corporation in 1994 illegally sanctioned and disbursed the loan amount of Rs 1.5 crore to Metro Builders Pvt Ltd.
They did so while abusing their position without such financial power on their part and without keeping adequate security for the loan amount, thereby causing wrongful financial loss to Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC).
Moquim was the Managing Director of Metro Builders Private Limited.