Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court rejected the plea of five persons including IAS officer and former director of Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC), Binod Kumar, and directed them to surrender before the Vigilance court in connection with Rs 55 lakh-financial fraud in 2000.
As all of them have been pronounced guilty and the quantum of punishment will be announced on August 4; the High Court has ruled against issuing non-bailable warrants for the time being. Earlier, all the accused had challenged the decision of a lower court and moved the High Court.
The officials of the anti-corruption agency had conducted raids at the residence of Kumar twice in a bid to arrest him.
Earlier, the Special Vigilance Court in Bhubaneswar had convicted Kumar and five others for financial irregularities.
The Court had also issued non-bailable warrants (NBWs) against four out of the five accused as one of them, former assistant manager of ORHDC Sanjay Mohanty, had deposed before the court for hearing.
Apart from Kumar & Mohanty, the other accused include the then Executive Director (Technical) of the ORHDC Purna Chandra Das, Accounts Officer Pratap Rout, Accountant Chittaranjan Mohanty and one Ashish Nayak.
Kumar was earlier arrested in May 2016 after he failed to appear before the court despite repeated summons in connection with the ORHDC scam trial. However, he was released on bail later.
A 1989-batch IAS officer, Kumar allegedly conspired, sanctioned and disbursed loans to builders and contractors without obtaining adequate collateral security and proper scrutiny during 2000-2001.