Bhubaneswar (Odisha): Odisha government on Wednesday dismissed senior IAS officer Vinod Kumar from service on charge of corruption, the Chief Minister's Office said in a statement.
The 1989 batch IAS officer was dismissed after approval of the Centre, it said.
The officer had indulged in corruption when he was posted as the managing director of the Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC), the statement said.
He was convicted by a court for both corruption and cheating in 2018.
In the aftermath of the 1999 super cyclone, Kumar approved loans amounting to Rs 33.34 crore to fake private firms and individuals without adhering to prescribed guidelines, the statement said.
Twenty-seven corruption cases were lodged against Kumar and he was convicted in two of those.
Special Vigilance Judge, Bhubaneswar had convicted Kumar and five others in the scam that ran into crores of rupees and sentenced them to three years in jail.
In the first case, he was convicted of criminal conspiracy with some government officials and a realtor of Puri to whom he has sanctioned Rs 46.9 lakh in guise of 19 individual loans during 2000-01 without proper scrutiny.
In the second case, he conspired with a property dealer to whom he sanctioned Rs 41.26 lakh on pretext of providing loans to 12 individuals.
Kumar was, however, not available for comments.
The Chief Minister's Office said the state government was committed to take strong action against the corrupt officials irrespective of their post.
Earlier, the state government had also dismissed a senior IFS officer from service on charge of corruption.(PTI)
