Bhubaneswar, May 3: Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra today dropped a bombshell in the Assembly alleging that the BJD's account in the State Bank of India's Main Branch had received Rs 8 crore on a single day and the money appeared to be linked to the Ponzi scam.
While Mishra, who suspected it was a ghost account, wondered if chief minister Naveen Patnaik was aware of the transaction, BJD spokesperson Pratap Jena described the allegation as baseless and challenged Mishra to either produce proof to support his charge or retire from politics.
Mishra, who was in focus during the pandemonium in the House on the issue of the Ponzi scam and Justice M.M. Das's controversial remarks about investors, said: "What is the relationship of the chief minister with that account (0091755246) and does Naveen Patnaik know that the account belongs to the BJD itself?"
Daring the chief minister to prove him wrong, he stepped up his attack on Naveen.
"In which way you (chief minister) and the BJD are associated with the said bank account? Who operates the bank account? Are you (Naveen) aware of the account?" he demanded to know.
Mishra sought to know who was Purna Chandra Padhi, who had repeatedly deposited money in the account. He hinted at the possibility of a link between Purna Chandra Padhi and Srikrushna Padhi, who had been arrested in connection with his links with the dubious money deposit collection company, the Artha Tatwa Group.
"We want to know what the relationship between Purna Chandra Padhi and Srikrushna Padhi is," said Mishra.
However, BJD spokesperson Pratap Jena challenged Mishra when the House resumed its proceedings in the evening.
Jena said: "If he has any proof, he should hand it over to the CBI which is investigating the case. If he is unable to prove the charges, he should tender a public apology and retire from politics."
Following Mishra's allegations, the House witnessed repeated adjournments and every one expected him to react to the statement of the ruling party. However, he did not turn up in the House. Sources said he was likely to make a statement on the issue tomorrow.
As soon as the House assembled this morning, the Congress and the BJP members trooped into the well raising slogans against Justice M.M. Das, who is heading the Ponzi scam probe commission and food minister Sanjay Das Burma.
"The chief minister seems to be afraid of making a statement on the scam. The ruling party MLAs are avoiding the issue as they find themselves badly trapped after Justice M.M. Das' remark on duped investors," said Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati.
He said ruling party was raising other issues to divert the public attention.
BJP MLA Pradeep Purohit said: "We are surprised by Naveen's silence on the issue. How can he keep mum on the involvement of Das Burma in the multi-crore deposit collection scam?"
The BJP also held a demonstration in front of all the district collectorates demanding resignation of Justice Das and minister Das Burma.
Justice Das had been embroiled in the controversy for having said that the state government had no role to play in the scam and had questioned the wisdom of people investing in such funds.
While the Opposition raised the issue pertaining to the money deposit scam, the ruling party members marched to Raj Bhavan to protest against the Centre's move to allocate more wheat instead of rice to the state.
"We need more rice from the Centre under the public distribution system because we are a rice-consuming state. If the Centre does not stop this (dumping wheat in the state), we will intensify our protest on the issue," said panchayati raj minister Arun Sahu.
In Delhi, BJD MPs met Union minister of food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan to discuss the issue.
In another development, SC and ST legislators today sat on a dharna in front of chief minister's chamber on the Assembly premises protesting against the non-implementation of the reservation policy. The MLAs were on dharna despite the Speaker's request to withdraw the protest till the time of filing the report.
