Bhubaneswar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday summoned BJD's Dharmasala MLA Pranab Balabantaray to appear before it on May 7 over his alleged links with gangster brothers Sushil and Sushant Dhal Samant, who are now in jail.

If the agency arrests him, it would be a major embarrassment for the ruling party with a number of its leaders, including Mayurbhanj MP Ramchandra Hansdah, have already been arrested by the CBI for their alleged links with money laundering companies.

Balabantray was also quizzed by the CBI for his links with Ponzi companies.

The ED is looking into how his company, Pranab Minerals and Transport, took the support of the Dhal Samants to expand his empire. It is making efforts to find financial transactions of the company with the gangsters.

Sources said Balabantaray has been asked to furnish all documents and audit reports of his transport company from 2005-06 to 2009-10. If he failed to submit all the documents, the ED might take action.

"We will provide all the documents as asked by the agency. I will cooperate with the agency. I have not done anything wrong," Balbantaray told The Telegraph.

Pranab Minerals and Transport was a major player in the transport of minerals between 2000 and 2009. Though Balabantray hails from Jajpur, his mining transport business was not confined to Jajpur. His transport business flourished with his father, the late Kalapataru Das, being a major force in the BJD.

However, Pranab closed down all his businesses after being elected as MLA from Dharmasala in 2014.

ED officials suspect the company might have taken the help of the Dhal Samants, who had major influence in the coastal belt, particularly in Cuttack, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts stretching up to Paradip port. The agency was examining whether the gangsters had business partnership with the company.

Sources close to Balabantray said he would claim before the agency that he had not taken any support from the gangsters and that there had been no financial transactions with them.

BJP supporters burnt Balabanatray's effigy at Kuakhia in his constituency. Party MLA Pradeep Purohit said: "It is slowly becoming clear how the BJD leaders helped the Dhal Samants to expand their empire."

The Congress also targeted the BJD on the issue. Party leader Ananta Sethi said: "The BJD has supported all the illegal activities."