Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim Granted Bail in ORHDC Case

Cuttack: Orissa High Court today granted bail to Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim in connection with a corruption case in Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC).

The Barabati-Cuttack MLA was asked to furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties while granting him the interim bail by the High Court, according to reports.

The next hearing of the case is set on October 13.

Earlier, a special vigilance court convicted the Congress MLA and former IAS officer Vinod Kumar, and sentenced them to three years in jail in connection with a Rs 1.5o crore loan scam.

Apart from the duo, Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, ex-company secretary, Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC), and Peeyusdhari Mohanty, director, Metro Builders Pvt Ltd, have also been sentenced to three years in jail by the court.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of the convicted persons, defaulting which they will have to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months.

Vinod Kumar and Swasti Ranjan had sanctioned a loan of Rs 1.50 croe to Metro Builders for the Metro City-II project at Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar, for the construction of 50 flats in 2000. Moquim was then the Managing Director of Metro Builders.

On the direction of Vinod Kumar, the loan was sanctioned and disbursed in three instalments. The loan agreement and other connected documents were signed by Mohanty on behalf of Metro Builders.

Though Vinod Kumar was not delegated with any financial power for sanction and disbursement of loan by the board of directors of ORHDC at that time, he along with Swasti Ranjan had sanctioned and disbursed the loan amount in haste by showing undue favour to the builder, the vigilance had said.