On Corruption Charges, Odisha Govt Fires Senior IAS Officer

Bhubaneswar: After the Centre approved the state government's motion, senior IAS official Vinod Kumar was dismissed from service on Wednesday on corruption charges.

After Super Cyclone in 1999, Kumar was the managing director of the Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC), and he is accused of awarding funding through unethical ways.

Kumar was found guilty of financial irregularities in the ORHDC and sentenced to three years in prison by the Special Vigilance Court of Odisha in 2022.

After the Super Cyclone in 1999, the ORHDC granted builders and others loans of roughly Rs 47 lakh without any security, prompting the Vigilance to file a case against Kumar.

The Vigilance had accused him of giving funds to an NGO in an arbitrary manner without following the guidelines to establish the Rural Building Centre in Balipatna, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, for the construction of low-cost dwellings for the victims of the cyclone.

Kumar had already been arrested and imprisoned. The anti-corruption unit had filed 28 charges against him for allegedly showing undue favour in obtaining loans from the ORHDC and acquiring property that was out of proportion to his known sources of income.

Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS official, was denied bail and was ordered to surrender by the Orissa High Court. He was sent to the Jharpada Jail in Bhubaneswar after surrendering.