Bhubaneswar: A Special Vigilance Court Monday convicted senior IAS officer and former the Director of Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC), Vinod Kumar, and sentenced him to three years jail in connection with the Rs 1.02 crore ORHDC scam.
Kumar and six others were charged with defrauding the ORHDC by promising flats to 27 people.
During his stint as the Managing Director of ORHDC in 2001, Kumar in association with the other convicted persons fraudulently granted a loan of Rs 1,01,70,000 to realtor Bijaya Kumar Biswal.
The loan was originally sanctioned in the name of 27 others from ORHDC. The builder had promised to construct an apartment complex named Jyothsna Garden at Shastri Nagar near Jayadev Vihar here. But Jyotshna Garden was already constructed in 1998, and the flats had been purchased by other buyers.
Kumar was convicted of financial irregularities amounting to Rs 55 lakh earlier in August 2018. None of the people for whom the loan was sanctioned had purchased flats in Jyotshna Garden. Builder Biswal arranged forged documents in the name of the 27 persons to get the loan. The outstanding loan amount stood at Rs 1,68,91,606 in December 2017.
Vigilance investigated the matter after the scandal came out in 2006, and filed a charge-sheet against the seven accused. But the then accounts officer Chitta Mallick was acquitted by court due to lack of evidence.
The court sentenced the convicts to three years rigorous imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 50,000 each. They have to undergo an additional six months RI in case of not paying the fine.
Recently, Kumar and the then Executive Director (Technical) of OHRDC Purna Chandra Das, Assistant Manager Sanjay Mohanty, Accounts Officer Pradip Rout, Accountant Chitta Mallick and Secretary of Gramya Bikash Manch Asish Das were convicted by court under Section 13 (2), 13(1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 420 and 120 of IPC for financial irregularities amounting to Rs 55 lakh in the corporation in 2000. They were each awarded a three-year jail term.
Reports said that 24 financial irregularities and disproportionate asset cases are pending against the senior IAS officer.
