Bhubaneswar: Senior IAS officer Vinod Kumar, who was convicted in financial irregularities at the Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation by the special vigilance court on July 3, on Monday deposed before the court in connection with another case against him.

Sources said Kumar, who was involved in 28 cases for allegedly showing undue favour in getting loans from the corporation and amassing properties disproportionate to his known source of income, appeared for the hearing of one of the cases. However, the hearing could not be conducted because of the absence of witness.

On July 3, the court convicted six persons, including Kumar, in connection with a misappropriation case in 2007 during their stint with the corporation. While the court has pronounced sentence to only one of the accused, Sanjay Mohanty, it has issued non-bailable warrant against the rest, including Kumar. However, all of them had later moved to Orissa High Court.

On Saturday last, the special vigilance court sentenced another accused, Asish Kumar Nayak, to three years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000. The Gramya Bikas Mancha's former secretary Nayak had challenged in the high court the non-bailable warrant order. The high court rejected his petition on July 27 and directed him to surrender before the trial court for hearing on sentence on August 4.

The high court on Friday last directed the vigilance sleuths not to give effect to the non-bailable warrant issued for Kumar's arrest till August 10. Earlier when Kumar had challenged the non-bailable warrant, the high court on July 26 declined to interfere in the matter and directed him to appear before the trial court on August 4 for pronouncement of their sentence. But, Kumar had again filed another petition, in which he sought a week's time to surrender. The high court had allowed it on Friday, giving him interim protection against arrest till August 10.

The three others convicted in the case but sentence not awarded because of their absence included the corporations' former executive director (technical) Purna Chandra Das, former accounts officer Pradeep Kumar Rout, and accountant (contractual) Chittaranjan Mallick.