Bhubaneswar: The presence of Subhankar Naik, a key accused in the Ponzi scam by Seashore Group, in the BCCI box during the India-Sri Lan-ka T-20 match at Barabati stadium in Cuttack on Wednesday has snowballed into a major controversy with the Opposition demanding an inquiry on his "links with those in the positions of power".

Naik - who was arrested by the CBI on November 18, 2014 and is out on bail since then - was spotted among top bureaucrats, IPS officers and ministers.

The Odisha Cricket Association (OCA), however, has denied having issued any entry pass to Naik.

"The Speaker and deputy Speaker of the Assembly were not provided with any complimentary entry passes for the cricket match and even the leader of Opposition was not given a pass. So, how come an accused in money-laundering scam got a pass among the VVIPs?" leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra asked on Thursday.

A source in the OCA said that around 200 passes of the BCCI box were distributed for the T-20 match.

"While wives of four Sri Lanka cricketers and wife of Indian skipper Rohit Sharma were provided complimentary passes along with BCCI officials, the rest of the passes were distributed among VVIPs of the state. We have not issued any pass in the name of Naik. He might have got it from other allottees," said OCA working committee chairman Dhiren Palai.

The preliminary charge-sheet submitted with the CBI court in March 2015 had also stated that Naik had good rapport with senior police officers and bureaucrats.

"It was established that he (Naik) had good links with senior police officers and bureaucrats by using which he was extending protection to the illegal acts of Seashore Group and Prashant Dash (Seashore chief)," the chargesheet had mentioned.

The CBI has so far interrogated four IPS officers on the basis of diaries seized from Naik. They are R.P. Koche, Sanjib Panda, Rajesh Kumar and Satish Kumar Gajbhiye.