Cuttack, June 21: Orissa High Court has taken up the matter of delay in framing charges by the CBI court in Bhubaneswar against Lok Sabha MP Rama Chandra Hansdah, who had been arrested in 2014 for alleged links to a Ponzi company.

Hansdah had filed a petition seeking intervention of the high court for early framing of charges by the court of chief judicial magistrate (CBI) and expeditious trial in the case.

"Acting on the petition, the single-judge bench of Justice S.K. Sahoo on Monday called for the case records from the trial court," Hansdah's counsel Binaya Kumar Mohanty said. The court however, has not fixed any date for submission or next hearing in the case.

The CBI had arrested Hansdah on November 4, 2014, for his alleged links with Nabadiganta Capital Services, a major player in the unauthorised deposit-collection scam in the state. He has since been lodged at the Jharpada jail in Bhubaneswar.

On July 31 last year, the CBI had raided the houses of Hansdah and two former MLAs - Hitesh Bagarti and Subarna Naik. During the raid, the CBI sleuths had seized Rs 28 lakh in cash and other documents from the Hansdah's residence. However, the three were arrested about a week after the arrest of the two directors of Nabadiganta Capital Services Pvt Ltd, which had allegedly collected several crores of rupees from investors by promising attractive returns.

Hansdah, who was elected MP on a BJD ticket and suspended by the party following his arrest, has also filed a fresh bail petition along with the petition for early framing of charges in the case pending before the CBI court.

Earlier, after the high court rejected his bail plea, Hansdah had approached the Supreme Court for bail, but withdrew the plea on September 24 to move afresh for bail after the trial court framed charges.

Later, Hansdah had moved the high court for interim bail for a period of one month.

While rejecting the plea on March 28, Justice S.K. Sahoo had said: "When the charges have not been framed by the trial court and the grounds taken for grant of interim bail are not satisfactory, in view of the nature and seriousness of the economic offence alleged against the petitioner (Rama Chandra Hansdah), I am not inclined to grant interim bail to the petitioner in the larger interest of the public and the state."

Hansdah had sought interim bail to prepare statements of his assets to the Lok Sabha secretariat, to get better treatment at a specialised hospital for his cervical spondilytis, for which he is under continuous treatment.

The Lok Sabha MP had also sought interim bail on the ground that the MPLAD scheme fund, which was allotted to him, has not been spent. He said various projects could not begin because of this and the people of his constituency were being deprived of the benefit of the scheme.