ORHDC scam: IAS officer slapped with 3-year jail term

Bhubaneswar: The Special Vigilance Court Friday sentenced IAS Vinod Kumar, former Managing Director of Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC) and the main accused in the `55-lakh ORHDC scam, and Purna Chandra Dash, another accused and ex-executive director (technical) of ORHDC, to three years’ rigorous imprisonment after they surrendered.
The court also rejected their bail pleas. They were also asked to pay fine of `75000 each.
Six persons, including Kumar and four former ORHDC staff, were held guilty of misappropriation to the tune of `55 lakh in 2000. Secretary of the NGO, Gramya Vikash Manch, was also convicted by the court.
Earlier, the vigilance sleuths also carried out raids at the residence and offices of Kumar at various places in the Capital after the court issued non-bailable arrest warrant against five convicts. Out of the six convicts, only Sanjay Mohanty, ex- assistant manager of ORHDC, was present during the pronouncement of judgment July 3.
Later, Kumar with four others convicts moved to the high court seeking bail which the court rejected and instructed them to surrender before the vigilance court by August 4. However, the court stayed the NBWs issued by the Special Vigilance Court.
Kumar and three others again moved to the court pleading for some more time to surrender and they were granted time till August 10.Two of the convicts, Chitta Ranjan Mallick (former accountant) and Pradeep Kumar Rout (former accounts officer) of ORHDC, surrendered before the vigilance court July 8. The Court subsequently awarded three years’ RI to both Mallick and Rout. The court also asked them to pay a fine of `75000 each. The secretary of Gramya Vikash Manch, Ashis Kumar Nayak, was sentenced to three years’ RI. He was also slapped with a fine of ` 50000.
In the wake of the Super Cyclone in 1999, the Central Rural Development Department had issued a grant through the Housing and Urban Development Corpora-tion (HUDCO) to construct houses for people whose houses had been damaged in the natural calamity. During his stint as the Managing Director of ORHDC in 2000, Kumar had illegally doled out loans from the coffers of ORHDC to Gramya Vikash Manch for developing Rural Building Centre at Balipatna.