ORHDC Loan Scam: IAS Vinod Kumar & 6 Others Convicted, sentenced to 3 Yrs Imprisonment

Bhubaneswar: IAS officer Vinod Kumar and former MD of Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC) along with six others were convicted in a money laundering case on Monday by the Special Judge, Vigilance, Gyana Ranjan Mohanty.

All convicts were punished with R.I. for three years and a Rs. 50,000 fine. Default of payment of fine will result in six-moth extra imprisonment.

The six accused other than Vinod Kumar are Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, company secretary, ORHDC, Pradeep Kumar Rout, former account officer, ORHDC, Satyaprakash Behera, junior loan officer, Jnanendra Swain, assistant system analyst, and Manoranjan Nayak, executive director, M/s Rashmi Mass Construction Pvt. Ltd, Bhubaneswar.

Vinod Kumar was the managing director of ORHDC from January 4, 2000, to May 15, 2001. As per the court verdict, during his tenure, the first six convicts used fake documents to grant a loan of Rs 21.35 lakh to M/s Rashmi Mass Construction Pvt. Ltd to provide residential property to individuals at Rashmi Villa at Nayapalli in Bhubaneswar.

However, Manoranjan Nayak did not construct Rashmi Villa at Nayapalli. Instead, he used the loan to construct a three-storied building of his own.

Eighteen witnesses and related documents were examined by the vigilance court to pass on the verdict against the seven accused in the case.