In a 22-year-old loan fraud case, a special Vigilance court sentenced Congress MLA Md Moquim and sacked IAS officer Vinod Kumar to three years behind bars on Thursday. Moquim represents the Cuttack-Barabati Assembly Segment, and his status as a lawmaker is now being called into question as a result of the court’s decision. Nonetheless, the Congress leader was granted bail and stated that he will take the case to the high court.
ORHDC corruption case: Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim handed 3-year jail term #Odisha https://t.co/ecaHAnIVGB #otv
— OTV (@otvnews) September 29, 2022
Peeyush Mohanty, director of Metro Builders Private Limited, and Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, a former company secretary of the Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC), were both imposed the same punishment in the case by the Court of Special Judge, Vigilance. The four convicts were sentenced to three years in prison and fined Rs 50,000 each. They would be imprisoned for an extra six months if they did not comply.
During Vinod Kumar’s tenure as ORHDC’s managing director, between January 4 and May 15, 2001, the loan scam took place. For its Metro City-II project, the state PSU approved Metro Builders’ request for a Rs 1.5 crore term loan, which it later received.
Kumar was not given financial power by the ORHDC board of directors at the time he approved the loan, nor was he permitted to sign the cheques. Neither the lending committee nor the board of directors of the ORHDC was…
