Cuttack: A special vigilance court in Bhubaneswar Thursday sentenced a Congress MLA, a former IAS officer and two others to three years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2005 graft case.
Cuttack City MLA Md Moquim, former IAS officer Vinod Kumar and the two others were convicted in the case that involves releasing government funds to a company in the guise of loans meant for the rural poor.
While Moquim was the managing director of the company when the case was instituted in March 2005, Kumar was then managing director of Orissa Rural Housing Development Corporation (OHRDC).
The two others were the then company secretary of OHRDC Swati Ranjan Mohapatra and director of the company Peeyusdhari Mohanty.
The convicts were also fined Rs 50,000 each and in default of payment of it, they will have to undergo further imprisonment of six months.
While Kumar and Mohapatra were convicted under several sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code, Moquim and Mohanty were found guilty only under various sections of the IPC.
Moquim was elected as an MLA for the first time in the May 2019 Assembly elections from the prestigious Cuttack City seat.
Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer who had as many as 27 graft cases against him and was convicted in two cases, was dismissed from service in February this year.
Moquim said he would challenge the vigilance court judgment in the High Court.
It happens when one leader is in the opposition party, claimed the Congress leader who was recently in the news when he supported the NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu in the Presidential elections defying his party’s decision.
PTI