ORHDC Scam: Orissa HC Grants Bail To IAS Officer Vinod Kumar

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Monday granted bail to senior IAS officer Vinod Kumar, former Managing Director of the Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC) and another employee of the Corporation Purna Chandra Das in connection with their complicity in the gross financial irregularities in the Corporation.

However, the High Court directed the Special Vigilance Court, Bhubaneswar, to decide the terms and conditions of their bail.

The Special Vigilance Court on August 10 had sentenced Kumar and former ORHDC executive director (technical) Purna Chandra Das to three years in jail soon after their surrender in the court. Later, they were arrested by the police.

Though the duo later applied for bail in the Orissa High Court, they were asked to file a fresh plea on Monday. Following the directive of the High Court, they were lodged in jail till the hearing of their petitions.

Notably, the Vigilance Directorate had registered a case against Kumar and five other employees of the Corporation— Sanjay Mohanty, Purna Chandra Das, Pradip Kumar Rout, Chitta Ranjan Mohanty and Ashish Kumar Nayak— 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.

Of the six, assistant manager Sanjay Mohanty had appeared in the court, which later issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the four absentees and Kumar, now posted as officer on special duty (OSD) in the Higher Education Department.

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 till further orders.

On July 26, the High Court rejected the bail plea of Kumar and directed him to surrender before the Special Vigilance Court on August 4.