A Special Vigilance Court in Bhubaneswar on Friday found former IAS officer Vinod Kumar, the ex-managing director of Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation and five others guilty in a housing scam case.
This was Kumar's 12th conviction in corruption cases linked to the ORHDC scam, and he was an accused in 15 other pending Vigilance cases.
The six convicted individuals had been found guilty of misusing ₹52.95 lakh of government funds meant for housing schemes for the rural poor, a statement issued by the vigilance department said.
The court sentenced each convict to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years.
The ex-officials had abused their power and shown undue favour to a private builder Sangram Keshari Sahoo by creating fake and forged documents.
Hence, all the erring officials and the builder were convicted by the Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar, it said.
They were charge-sheeted under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC for misappropriation of government funds to the tune of ₹52.95 lakh.
Vinod Kumar, a 1989 batch officer, was dismissed from service on charges of corruption in 2022. During his tenure as the managing director of ORHDC in 1999, he had sanctioned housing funds to the tune of ₹33.34 crore through unfair means when rural housing was taken up in a big scale after the Super Cyclone.
Vinod was also accused of granting loans to real estate firms/contractors and NGOs without verifying house construction/reconstruction after the Super Cyclone that devastated the state and claimed thousands of lives.
In 2018, the Special Vigilance Court had convicted Kumar for financial irregularities in the ORHDC and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment. The state government had made 27 Vigilance cases against Kumar, of which he has been convicted in 12 cases.
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.
