Odisha Govt dismisses tainted IAS officer Vinod Kumar for corruption
Bhubaneswar: As part of its zero tolerance policy towards corruption, Odisha Government today dismissed tainted senior IAS officer Vinod Kumar from service in connection with 2001 scam worth crores.
The Centre has also approved the state Government’s recommendation for removal of the IAS officer.
Earlier in July 2018, the official was convicted by the Vigilance court here on charges of cheating and corruption during his tenure as the Managing Director of Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation (ORHDC).
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In the aftermath of 1999 Super Cyclone, Vinod had unauthorizedly sanctioned loans amounting to Rs 33.34 crore by showing undue favour to various fictitious real estate firms and NGOs, causing a huge loss to the state exchequer. He had sanctioned the loans without conducting verifications for housing reconstruction after the Super Cyclone.
Later, the state Government had filed 27 Vigilance cases against him, of which he was convicted in two cases.
On July 3, 2018, the Special Vigilance Judge here had sentenced him to three years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) and imposed a fine of Rs 25, 000 on him in connection with a particular case, where the ORHDC had disbursed loans for setting up a Rural Building Centre in Balipatna area through an NGO named Gramya Vikas Manch. The court had also convicted five others in the case.
“The state government has always taken stringent action against perpetrators of corrupt practices. Recently, senior IFS officer Abhay Kanta Pathak was dismissed from service after his involvement in a high-profile job scam was proved true,” said a statement issued by the CMO.
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