Bhubaneswar, June 2: Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police have summoned 22 people, including media personalities, in connection with the activities of fraudulent deposit collection companies.

Earlier, the police had arrested a journalist who publishes a vernacular newspaper. Sources said the cops were planning to call another 27 high profile persons in this connection.

During the interrogation, the Artha Tatwa Group chief Pradeep Sethi had revealed that people from all sections, including politicians, businessmen, media personalities, hoteliers and cricket administrators, were the beneficiaries of his company. However, police are yet to summon any of the members of the ruling party. The group is alleged to have swindled nearly Rs 1,500 crore from the investors.

The owner and proprietor of Odisha Bhaskhar, Madhu Mohanty, who has been summoned by the police for appearance, said: “The Artha Tatwa Group had sponsored one of our programmes ‘Maa Tujhe Salam’ and issued advertisements for our successful Odisha Youth Icon awards. For these two programmes, the group had released Rs 60 to Rs 65 lakh through cheques.”

Mohanty said that it was not wrong on the part of any newspaper organisation to seek advertisements from any group. “Across the country, all media houses do this. By giving advertisements to us, the group had got mileage. Our relationship with that group is that between a newspaper and its client.”

The executive editor and chairman-cum-managing director of another vernacular newspaper Surjya Prabha, Bikash Swain, expressed the same view. Swain said: “What is wrong in getting advertisements from a group? We have got around Rs 60 lakh. We have also shown it in our paper’s income tax returns. We will show all the related documents to the police.”

The cops have also summoned Lipi Das, the owner of a news channel. The channel has already shut down operations. Lipi’s husband Manoj Das told The Telegraph: “The Artha Tatwa Group had inked an agreement with our group to start at least six channels using our teleport. To do that, the group had given us Rs 90 lakh. Getting an assurance from the group we had also expanded our infrastructure to accommodate the telecast of six channels.”

Das said they had also contacted the Indian Space Research Organisation and another agency in Indonesia to avail satellite facilities. “What’s wrong in doing that? We did everything according to the group’s request. But they did not turn up to avail the facilities. We have not even charged the group for the advertisements that they released on our channel for this purpose,” said Manoj.

The Congress today announced that it would organise protest rallies outside the district collectorates on the fraud by fund collection companies on June 5.

Pradesh Congress Committee president Jaydev Jena said: “We want a CBI inquiry into this issue. Only that can bring out the truth.”