Manoj Das

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 27: Writer Manoj Das has donated an honorarium amount of Rs 10 lakh that he had received from the money deposit circulation company, Seashore, for managing its two literary magazines, to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Das, a winner of the Sahitya Akademi award, took the step after questions had been raised about his association with the group, which is under the CBI scanner for having allegedly duped investors. Its chairman-cum-managing director, Prashant Das, is lodged in jail.

The 80-year-old author came in touch with the group after it had made forays into the literary field and instituted an award “Sudra Muni” to honour eminent litterateurs of the state. The award has been conferred on reputed writers such as Mohapatra Nilamani Sahu, late Braja Nath Rath and late Nityananda Mohapatra.

Das’s association with the group was questioned in write-ups in a section of the local media. There were also adverse comments about him on a social networking site.

Talking to The Telegraph over phone from Puducherry, Das said: “Pained by the criticism, I arranged money from one of my friends-cum-relative and sent it to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. When I worked with the organisation, no one had raised the issue.”

An inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry since 1973, Das’s association with the group began in late 2011 when the company sought his services as an advisor for its two publications Sahitya Pruthivi, a monthly Odia magazine, and Kishora Patrika-Sita Sakal (winter morning), a magazine for teenagers. Apart from contributing articles, he was in charge of planning content for these two magazines, for which the company had paid him a monthly honorarium of Rs 1 lakh for some months. He was also given Rs 5,000 towards secretarial assistance every month.

Das said that when he had worked for the Chandamama, one of the longest running children’s multi-lingual magazine, he had a dream that he would someday work towards bringing out a literary magazine for the children and the youth in Odia — which would give them both knowledge and joy.

“People introduced me to the Seashore boss as a former lecturer-turned-businessman, who wanted to do something in the literary field. As I used to write for a number of magazines, I agreed. Being a writer, I don’t have the scope to know what sort of business he is doing,” said Das.

Das had earlier edited the cultural magazine, The Heritage, published from Chennai in the 1980s. The magazine is no more in circulation. He also wrote a number of columns in various national dailies. Das said he had also donated the Rs 45,000, which his assistant had received as remuneration to the relief fund.

“I was aggrieved to know that an item was circulated in the social media that I used to take Rs 1 lakh from them for just lending my name. But, no one inquired about its veracity and the labour I had put in to make the magazine successful.”

Asked about his feelings on the alleged fraudulent activities of Seashore, which have come to public knowledge now, he said: “I feel sorry that so many people have been cheated. I also feel sorry that two nice magazines met with an unnatural and untimely death.”

Contacted by The Telegraph, Nanda Kishore Sethi, the general administration department’s additional secretary, who deals with the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, said he needed time to check the records whether the cheques had been received.