Jail Term In Rural Housing Scam: I Have Been Framed, Says Odisha MLA Md Moquim

Bhubaneswar: Barabati-Cuttack Congress MLA and ex-MD of Metro Builders Mohammed Moqium along with three others, including former IAS officer Vinod Kumar, was on Thursday sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment by the Special Vigilance Court here in connection with the rural housing scam in the aftermath of Super Cyclone in Odisha.

While the jail term can dent his public image, Moquim said that he has been framed and denied the complicity of his company in the scam. “A businessman who turns politician and that too from the Opposition has to face such allegations from the ruling party. My bail has been granted, and I will move High Court against the ruling,” he added.

The court found them guilty of showing undue official favour, criminal misconduct, forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy and obtaining pecuniary advantage for Metro Builders Pvt Ltd by releasing funds in the guise of loans meant for the rural poor.

The scam was unearthed before he entered the political turf. Metro Builders Director Peeyush Dhari Mohanty and Company Secretary Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra have also been handed over 3-year jail term.

Notably, the 1989-batch IAS officer Kumar was dismissed from service on charges of corruption in February this year. As MD of ORHDC in 1999, he had sanctioned housing funds to the tune of Rs 33.34 crore through unfair means when rural housing was taken up on a big scale after the Super Cyclone. He was also accused of granting loans to real estate firms/contractors and NGOs without verifying house construction/reconstruction. The basic norms of inspection, verification and collaterals were flouted in the disbursal of loans during 2000-01, sources said.

He was slapped with 27 Vigilance cases and has been convicted in three. The Special Vigilance Court sentenced Kumar to three years of imprisonment in 2018 for financial irregularities in the ORHDC