Bhubaneswar: A special vigilance court here convicted six persons, including an IAS officer, in connection with a funds misappropriation case in 2007.
The six convicted by the court of special judge, vigilance, Bhubaneswar on Tuesday include 1989 batch IAS officer Vinod Kumar for their role in embezzling public money during their stint with Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation Limited.
One of the accused, former corporation assistant manager Sanjay Mohanty, was sentenced to three years in prison, the sentence for the rest could not be pronounced as they were not present in court.
Special public prosecutor, vigilance, Hemanta Kumar Swain said the court had issued non-bailable warrants against the rest, including Kumar. "We examined 18 witnesses during the trial. The charge sheet was submitted against the six accused for criminal conspiracy, cheating, show of undue official favour and criminal misconduct and allowing pecuniary advantage," said Swain.
Kumar, who is posted as the officer on special duty to the higher education department, was allegedly involved in several cases of misappropriation of funds worth lakhs of rupees during his tenure as the corporation's managing director in 2000-01.
A vigilance sleuth said he had been arrested and sent to jail several times. The anti-corruption wing had registered 13 cases against him for allegedly showing undue favour in getting loans from the corporation and amassing properties disproportionate to his known source of income. The anti-corruption wing had also found that Kumar and his wife had invested heavily in the share market.
A vigilance official said the case for favouring builders and other private parties to get loans of Rs 47 lakh from the corporation without any securities was registered in 2007.