The Orissa High Court on Thursday granted bail to former IAS officer Vinod Kumar, who is convicted by a Special Vigilance Court in connection with a corruption case in the Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC).
The High Court accepted the petition challenging the verdict of the Vigilance court and directed the lower court to fix the bail conditions. It also stayed the Vigilance court’s order imposing penalty on Vinod Kumar in the ORHDC case.
On Wednesday, the High Court had also granted bail another convict, Peeyushdhari Mohanty, a director of the Metro Builders Pvt Ltd, in the case.
Also, on October 10, Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim, who was convicted in the case, had been granted bail from the High Court. The court later stayed the conviction imposed by the Vigilance court on him.
On September 29, the Vigilance Court in Bhubaneswar had awarded three years of rigorous imprisonment to four persons, Barabati-Cuttack MLA Moquim, Vinod Kumar, Peeyushdhari Mohanty and former company secretary of ORHDC Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, for the loan scam in the ORHDC.
The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 each on the convicted persons. Non-payment of the penalty amount would invite another six months of jail term.
Vinod Kumar was the MD of ORHDC from January 4, 2000 to May 15, 2001 while Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra was the Company Secretary.
On June 24, 2000, the Metro Builders had applied for term loans to the…
