Bhubaneswar, Sept. 3: The court of special chief judicial magistrate, CBI, today extended the remand of chairman-cum-managing director of Artha Tatwa (AT) Group Pradeep Sethy and one of the directors, Srikrushna Padhi, by three more days.
The central investigating agency had sought extension on the grounds that it needed to further investigate him to trace the money trail of the group.
“During interrogation, Sethy had disclosed a number of bank accounts of the group in the state and outside as well. So, we need to interrogate Sethy again to find out the money trail,” said a CBI official. Sources said the group had kept money in banks outside the country as well.
However, Sethy today said he became a victim of conspiracy by political leaders, who had availed themselves of financial benefits from the group. Sethy, who was produced in the court today after his 10-day remand period was over, told reporters outside the court room that he was offered a ticket by a national political party to fight Parliament elections from Ganjam district.
“Though I rejected the offer, a number of the state’s political leaders, who had availed themselves of the financial benefits, apprehended that they would be forced to return my money if I joined politics. So, they hatched the conspiracy against me to tarnish my image,” said Sethy.
Sethy also told that though the group could have returned the money of the investors by selling the properties, including the land belonging to the company, the political leaders influenced the state machinery, including the police, to shield them.
The CBI on August 30 conducted its interrogation of the Artha Tatwa Group boss in presence of the agency’s joint director Rajiv Singh, who also heads the Special Investigating Team. Singh had visited Bhubaneswar to monitor the probe conducted by the central investigating agency regarding money laundering by sham deposit and collection companies.
Sources said Singh had reviewed progress on investigation with special emphasis on the group, which has been on the CBI radar for allegedly laundering Rs 500 crore.
The CBI on August 16 had raided as many as 60 locations, including the house of BJD’s Banki legislator Pravat Tripathy, across the state to find out the alleged links of the violators with the company. Besides the investigating agency had also seized several photographs, which showed Sethy in the company of BJD leaders.
In another incident, the central agency today arrested two assistant general mangers of a nationalised bank in connection with a fraud. They are D.N. Routray and Rabi Shankar Dasgupta.
On April 3, the CBI sleuths arrested two persons, including a hotelier, in connection with a loan fraud. Hotelier Chitta Ranjan Mallik, 45, and his accomplice, Sourya Ranjan Behera, 35, were nabbed for forging documents and taking a loan of Rs 5.37 crore from the secretariat branch of a nationalised bank.
An official said the fraud took place between May 2005 and August 2011. Sourya had taken a loan of Rs 45.89 lakh from the bank in the name of his transport company, which never existed. Besides, Sourya had taken loans by creating fake firms. “The two assistant general managers had helped him get the loan,” said a CBI official.
