Vinod Kumar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 24: Suspended IAS officer Vinod Kumar was today arrested by vigilance officials who executed a non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued by the special vigilance court against him for not responding to its earlier summons. Kumar was later released on bail.

Director general of police (DGP), vigilance, Anup Pattnaik said the court had issued an NBW on February 10 as Kumar did not appear before the court despite having been served summons.

“We executed the NBW and arrested the IAS officer from his residence at IRC village today and produced him in court,” said Pattnaik.

Vigilance officials said that the 1989 batch IAS officer was involved in several cases of misappropriation of funds worth around Rs 475 crore during his tenure as the managing director of the Orissa Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC).

“Today’s case was one among these cases against him. Along with Kumar, six others were also accused in this case. They had earlier appeared before the court,” said Dillip Chhotray, special public prosecutor of vigilance.

Sources said the vigilance department had filed the case in 2006 for showing undue favour to builders and other private parties to get loans of around Rs 46.90 lakh from ORHDC without keeping any securities against them.

The court of special judge, vigilance, S.K. Mohanty granted him bail with Rs 20,000 surety bond to expedite the case. Kumar’s lawyer Durga Prasad Dhal said the IAS officer had some personal issues because of which he had not appeared before the court in the past.

“But today we assured the court that he would help expedite the case, following which he was granted bail,” said Dhal.

Kumar had been arrested and sent to jail several times in the past. The anti-corruption wing had registered around 13 cases against him for allegedly showing undue favour in getting loans from ORHDC and amassing properties disproportionate to his known source of income.

Sources said after the super cyclone hit Orissa in 1999, the government of India had provided funds to build low-cost houses for the victims in both rural and urban areas.

During Kumar’s tenure in 2000-01, the corporation allegedly granted loans to builders and contractors unscrupulously without obtaining adequate collateral security and not conducting pre and post-sanction inspection.

Moreover, no follow-up action was allegedly taken to recover the loans. As a result, repayments up to Rs 475 crore remained outstanding and their realisation was unlikely, sources said.

Kumar had been under suspension since July 2006. Vigilance had filed a charge-sheet against him in this case in 2009.

He was booked under sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 420 (cheating) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and 13 (1) (d) and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.