BHUBANESWAR: A Vigilance court here on Friday awarded three years rigorous imprisonment (RI) to dismissed IAS officer Vinod Kumar and six others in connection with a loan fraud case.
This is the 12th conviction involving corruption in Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC) by then managing director Vinod Kumar and other officials by hatching criminal conspiracy with private persons.
The court convicted Kumar, company secretary Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, junior loan officer Satya Prakash Behera, accounts officer Pradeep Kumar Rout, assistant system analyst Jnanendra Swain, recovery assistant Umesh Chandra Swain and proprietor of M/s Ecstasy Builders and Developers Private Limited Sangram Keshari Sahoo.
Vigilance had earlier filed the charge sheet for misappropriating corporation’s funds amounting to Rs 52.95 lakh meant for the poor rural people. The six former officials had abused their official power and provided undue favour to builder Sahoo by creating fake and forged documents, said a Vigilance officer.
During his tenure as the MD of ORHDC in 1999, the 1989-batch IAS officer had sanctioned housing funds to the tune of Rs 33.34 crore through unfair means when rural housing was taken up in a big scale after the Super Cyclone, the officer added.