Odisha MLA Md Moquim, Ex-IAS Officer Get 3-Year Jail Term In Rural Housing Scam

Bhubaneswar: Congress MLA and ex-MD of Metro Builders Mohammad Moquim was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment by Special Vigilance Court here on Thursday in connection with the rural housing scam after the 1999 Super Cyclone in Odisha.

Besides Moquim, former IAS officer and former managing director of Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC) Vinod Kumar and Company Secretary Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, and Metro Builders Director Peeyush Dhari Mohanty also have to spend three years in jail.

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.

All of them have been fined Rs 50,000 each. In case of default, they have to undergo six more months of imprisonment.

The 1989-batch IAS officer 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.

Metro Builders Pvt Ltd was sanctioned a term loan of Rs 1.5 crore from the state PSU for its Metro City-II project without the approval of the board of directors of ORHDC or the loan committee.

Kumar 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.