Cuttack: Dismissed IAS officer Vinod Kumar, who has at least 27 corruption cases against him, was convicted for the 10th time by a Special Vigilance Court in Bhubaneswar informed the State Vigilance Directorate here on Tuesday. The 1989-batch IAS officer was dismissed from service in February 2022 and is one of the key accused in the multi-crore rural housing scam.
When he was convicted for the first time in 2021 by the Vigilance Court, the State government after obtaining clearance from the Centre, dismissed him from the service. He had disbursed loans illegally and received pecuniary benefits from the loanees while officiating as MD of Orissa Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC) in 2001.
He was in fact, the first IAS officer from the State cadre to be dismissed from service on corruption charges. During his tenure as MD of ORHDC, Vinod Kumar had sanctioned and disbursed housing funds to the tune of Rs 33.34 crore through unfair means when rural housing was taken up in a big scale after the Super Cyclone of 1999 which devastated the entire State.
In all the corruption cases registered against him by the vigilance sleuths, the anti-corruption wing of Odisha police, he was facing charges of showing undue official favour, criminal misconduct, forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy under several sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act-1988.
In the latest conviction order passed against Vinod Kumaron Tuesday, the special court has sentenced the former IAS officer to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) of three years and to pay a fine of Rs 25,000 for disbursing loans without security deposits.
