Srikant Jena

Bhubaneswar, May 17: Union minister and Congress MP from Balasore Srikant Jena today demanded a CBI inquiry into charges of fraud against deposit collection companies in the state.

“Nearly 20 lakh people of the state have been conned. Balasore district is the worst affected. People responsible for misery of the poor investors should be brought to book. The Odisha government should recommend a CBI inquiry,” said the Union minister of chemicals and fertilisers, who was here in the city to attend a national conference.

Coming down heavily on the Naveen Patnaik government, Jena said: “People’s confidence in one of the deposit collection companies of Odisha grew after Naveen babu attended an event in which the company launched its TV channel in 2011. People were befooled seeing Naveen.”

A crime branch official said the said company (Sea Shore) had swindled nearly Rs 700 crore from the market and cheated thousands of people.

Stating that the chief minister was “scared” to recommend for a CBI inquiry, Jena said: “Once the CBI inquiry begins, many skeletons will tumble out. The piece-meal approach of the Odisha government in ordering a crime branch inquiry will not solve the case.”

Jena said that as the fraud deposit collection companies had spread their tentacles in a number of states, the CBI was the competent agency to deal with cases of fraud. “It is astonishing that the state government had slept over the matter till Bengal’s Saradha Group’s chief Sudipta Sen was arrested,” he said.

However, BJD members said there was no need for an CBI inquiry and the crime branch was competent to deal with the cases. Panchayati raj minister Kalapataru Das said: “The CBI has lost its credibility. The apex court has already termed it as a cage parrot. By handing over the case to them, we will only seal it.”

In another development, a team of Odisha police has been sent to Bengal to bring Sen on remand here.

Senior Congress leader and former Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik demanded a probe by a Special Investigation Team under the supervision of a retired high court judge. “People have the right to know the identity of the people, who provided protection to the fraud deposit collection companies,” he said.

The BJP Odisha unit also echoed Jena’s demands and organised a news conference today, alleging that ministers and leaders of the BJD were involved in the cases. “The companies are patronising ruling party leaders. People have the right to know the real face of the ministers and leaders,” said BJP-backed Independent member Pratap Sarangi.

Investors continued to organise protest rallies across Odisha. People in Nayagarh today lodged a case against the Artha Tawta company, whose chairman-cum-managing director Pradeep Sethy has been sent to judicial custody.