Supreme Court suspends sentence of Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim in loan fraud case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the three-year sentence of Odisha Congress Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), Mohammed Moquim, in connection with a loan fraud case..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta passed an interim order to this effect, pending the disposal of the legislator's appeal against conviction in the matter.It also sought the response of the Odisha government in the matter..The Bench was hearing an appeal against an April 10 ruling of the Orissa High Court which had found Moquim guilty. The High Court had upheld the three year imprisonment imposed on Moquim by the Bhubaneswar Special Vigilance Judge in 2022. The case arose out of a ₹1.5 crore loan the legislator's company had taken from the Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation. The loan was alleged to have been obtained through forged documents and certificates and without due expert consultation and review..During the hearing of the appeal on April 16, the top court had granted the legislator exemption from surrendering. Supreme Court judge Justice PS Narasimha had on April 22 recused from hearing the matter following which it came up before Justices Kant and Datta on Tuesday.The Bench then proceeded to stay the High Court order. .Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi and Dr. S Muralidhar with advocates Mithu Jain and Sanchit Garga appeared for Moquim.Senior Advocate R Basant with advocates Prakash Ranjan Nayak, Kavinesh RM, Chaitanya Chauhan, Raunak Arora and Animesh Dubey appeared for the State of Odisha..Just last month, the top court had stayed an Orissa High Court ruling that had held that Moquim's 2019 election to the Odisha Legislative Assembly was void.That order of the High Court was passed on account of alleged suppression of criminal antecedents in his election affidavit.