ORHDC Scam: HC Rejects Bail Plea Of IAS Officer Vinod Kumar, 5 Others

Cuttack: Trouble mounted for senior IAS officer Vinod Kumar as the Orissa High Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of the senior bureaucrat and five employees of the Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC) and directed them to surrender before the Special Vigilance Court on August 4.

The court, however, directed the police not to arrest the six till August 4.

The Special Vigilance Court, which had convicted Kumar, former Managing Director of ORHDC, and five employees in connection with their alleged complicity in the gross financial irregularities, will pronounce the term of punishment on August 4.

The Vigilance Directorate had registered a case against Kumar and five other employees of the Corporation in 2000 for their alleged involvement in financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 55 lakh in the construction of cyclone shelters after the Super Cyclone in October 1999.

Hearing the case, the Special Vigilance Court on July 3 had convicted Kumar and five employees.

Apart from Kumar, the five employees convicted by the court are Sanjay Mohanty, Purna Chandra Das, Pradip Kumar Rout, Chitta Ranjan Mohanty and Ashish Kumar Nayak.

Of the six, only Sanjay Mohanty, Assistant Manager of the corporation had appeared in the court. The court had later issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the four absentees and Kumar, who is now posted as officer on special duty (OSD) in the Higher Education Department.

A day after the court’s order, the Vigilance officials had gone to Kumar’s official residence at Nayapalli in Bhubaneswar on July 5. But they could not find him as the house was locked.

The following day, the anti-corruption officials again raided his residence and seized some documents. But the IAS officer remained untraceable.

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.