CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday stayed the Special Vigilance court’s order of sentencing Congress MLA from Barabati-Cuttack, Mohammed Moquim to three years imprisonment in a loan scam case. The Vigilance court, Bhubaneswar on September 29 had convicted Moquim, former IAS officer and MD Orissa Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC) Vinod Kumar and two others in connection with the loan scam.
Moquim had filed a criminal appeal challenging the propriety of the order on the ground that it was “incurably defective and suffered from gross infirmities”. The appeal further contended that the trial court failed to appreciate the evidence and materials available on record in proper perspective and passed the conviction order while the sentence was awarded without proper application of mind. “The trial court’s conclusion holding Moquim guilty is perverse and not sustainable in law,” senior advocate Pitambar Acharya argued on Moquim’s behalf.
Moquim had filed three miscellaneous case petitions for stay on sentence and grant of bail, stay on Rs 50,000 fine imposed by trial court and stay on the conviction. The single judge bench of Justice BP Routray admitted the criminal appeal, granted stay on execution of sentence and imposition of fine. Justice Routray also granted bail at Rs 1 lakh along with two sureties of like amount.
When the HC took up the plea for stay on the conviction order, the State…
