Pravat Tripathy

Cuttack, Sept. 29: The CBI today conceded before Orissa High Court that it had no evidence so far to prove that the BJD’s high-profile MLA and former government chief whip Pravat Kumar Tripathy’s links with Artha Tatwa (AT) Group that has duped thousands of investors in the state.

However, the central investigating agency’s counsel, V. Narasingh, argued that insulating Tripathy from possible arrest would pose hindrance to the process of investigation and render further interrogations ineffective.

The single judge bench of Justice Debabrata Dash reserved its judgment on the anticipatory bail plea of Tripathy, the second legislator to be questioned by the CBI after Dharmasala MLA Pranab Balabantaray.

The CBI quizzed Tripathy for nearly five hours on September 16. While the CBI had summoned Balabantaray in connection with a land deal with the group, the central agency tried to find out whether Tripathy had taken any help from the company to organise the Banki Mahotsava.

The CBI counsel said the agency was examining the authenticity of a compact disk (CD) that carries a purported telephonic conversation between Tripathy and the group chief Pradeep Kumar Sethy. The CD has been sent to Hyderabad for forensic and voice test.

In the CD, which surfaced last year, the MLA is allegedly heard requesting Sethy for sponsorship for the annual Banki Mahotsava in his constituency. Tripathy said it was not his voice. The CBI has been trying to ascertain whether any money transaction has taken place between Sethy and Tripathy.

However, senior advocate Pitambar Acharya, who is representing Tripathy, refuted the CBI’s arguments. Acharya submitted that the central agency had on August 16 raided Tripathy’s house in Cuttack, official quarters in Bhubaneswar and party office at Banki. The agency had also verified his four bank accounts for the money trail.

Acharya said the CBI had not come up with an iota of evidence except for a purported CD and the agency was yet to ascertain the person, who had recorded the conversation and what electronic device had been used for the recording. He regretted that the CBI had submitted to the court about the seizure of 153 sheets of papers during the raids without indicating that they were related to questions and answers during an Assembly session.

Documents gutted

Computer, printer and documents at Banki Central Co-operative Bank in Cuttack were gutted in a fire today. The CBI raided the bank on August 20 in connection with its ongoing probe into the deposit collection scam. The CBI had seized documents and bank transactions of Subhas Padhi, an associate of Pravat Tripathy.