ORHDC Scam: IAS officer Vinod Kumar gets 3-year jail term

Bhubaneswar: Senior IAS officer Vionod Kumar and five others were sentenced to three years in jail and fined Rs 75,000 each by a special vigilance court here on Friday in connection to 2001 ORHDC scam.

Earlier on the day, Kumar surrendered before the court.

On July 3 this year, the Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar convicted Kumar and five others in connection with multi crore financial irregularities during his tenure as managing director of Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC). The Court also issued non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Kumar and five other employees of ORHDC.

Of the five employees against whom the court had issued NBW, three employees Purna Chandra Das, Chittaranjan Malik and Pradip Rout moved the High Court challenging the order of the lower court.

The High Court, after hearing their plea, had granted them the interim relief on July 8.

Later, Kumar moved the High Court on July 10 with a similar plea and got the interim relief from the court, which had directed the police not to arrest him on the directive of the lower court till further orders.

The case dates back to 2001 when ORHDC had sanctioned loans to real estate firms and NGOs for construction of shelter houses after the October 1999 Super Cyclone, which ravaged the coastal districts in the state. About a dozen cases were registered after it came to light that Kumar and other employees had allegedly flouted basic norms of inspection and verification while disbursing loans to the tunes of over 100 crores.