The HC demanded that the Barabati-Cuttack MLA present a bail bond in the amount of Rs. 1 lakh with two sureties.
Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim experienced a significant sense of relief on Monday after the Orissa High Court approved his appeal contesting the jail term imposed on him as a result of a vigilance case in a corruption case and granted him bail.
The Barabati-Cuttack MLA was required by the HC to provide a bail bond in the amount of Rs. 1 lakh with two sureties in order to be granted bail. The legislator’s punishment in the corruption case against the Odisha Rural Housing & Development Corporation (ORHDC) has also been postponed by the court.
The vigilance informed the court about the MLA’s conviction in the case during the hearing. October 13 has been set aside for the following hearing.
A special vigilance court last month condemned the Congress leader to three years of hard labour in an ORHDC corruption case. Vinod Kumar, a former IAS officer and the managing director of ORHDC, as well as Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, the company secretary of ORHDC, and Peeyus Mohanty, a realtor and the director of Metro Builders Pvt Ltd, were all given three-year prison sentences by the Special Judge (Vigilance) court in Bhubaneswar.
The verdict was delivered by the special vigilance judge following the deposition of 17 witnesses. Each convict was also fined Rs 50,000 by the court, and if they didn’t pay, they would have to serve an extra six months in solitary confinement.
The case diary states that Vinod Kumar and Swosti Ranjan approved a loan to Metro Builders Pvt Ltd for Rs 150L to be used for the development of 50 units at the Metro City-II project in Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar.
Vinod Kumar was not given any financial authority by the ORHDC Board of Directors to approve or disburse loans at that time.
Prasanta Patnaik