BHUBANESWAR: A Vigilance court on Tuesday convicted senior IAS officer Vinod Kumar on charges of corruption and cheating during his tenure as managing director of Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC). The Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar found Kumar and five others guilty in connection with the 2001 scam which ran into crores of rupees. However, barring former assistant manager of ORHDC Sanjay Mohanty, none was present during the pronouncement of the verdict. The Vigilance court has issued non-bailable warrants against IAS officer Kumar and four others.
Kumar was placed under suspension when the corruption charges were slapped against him in 2001. Later, he was reinstated. Currently, he is Officer On Special Duty with MSME Department. The others who were convicted include former Executive Director (Technical) of ORHDC Purna Chandra Das, former accounts officer Pradeep Kumar Rout, accountant (contractual) Chittaranjan Mallick and secretary of NGO Gramya Vikas Manch Ashis Kumar Nayak.
The case dates back to 2001 when ORHDC had sanctioned loans to real estate firms and NGOs without conducting verifications for housing reconstruction after the super cyclone. About a dozen cases were registered after it came to light that basic norms of inspection, verification and collaterals were flouted in disbursal of the loans. The scam ran into over `100 crores.
In this particular case, the ORHDC had disbursed loans for setting up a Rural Building Centre in Balipatna area through NGO Gramya Vikash Manch. The six persons were found guilty under Sections 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, along with Sections 420 and 120-B of IPC for criminal conspiracy and providing pecuniary advantage to the NGO owned by Nayak by releasing funds without following the guidelines to set up the Rural Building Centre.
Mohanty, the only one present in the court, was awarded three years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) and a fine of `25, 000 failing which he would undergo RI for two months. The sentences will run concurrently. The court did not pronounce the sentences for five others as they were not present, and the Special Judge issued non-bailable warrants against them.
The Bhubaneswar Division of Vigilance had registered a case in this regard on December 31, 2007 and submitted a charge sheet against the six persons for criminal conspiracy, cheating, extending undue official favour and criminal misconduct. Former inspector, Vigilance Cell, Cuttack, SK Das, investigated the case, and Hemant Kumar Swain was the public prosecutor.
