Bhubaneswar, Nov. 3: Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab today retracted from his statement on the arrest of Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy in the money deposit scam.

The BJD leadership had suspended Tripathy from the party.

In a statement, Mahtab said: “Some news reports have misquoted me and stated that I have challenged the decision of the party, which is not true. President of our party has the final say, and I stand by the decision of the party.”

Earlier, Mahtab said Tripathy had served the party and the state well in different capacities and the decision to suspend him was not justified.

His statement had sparked off a controversy following which BJD spokesperson Amar Prasad Stapathy had said that Mahtab should not have raised the issue in the media. “It would have been better had he taken up the matter in the party forum,” he said.

Mahtab said that his statement, “made in a hurry”, should not be construed as criticism of the leadership. The MP said he had supported Tripathy on “human grounds” and believed that he would emerge unscathed from the CBI inquiry. “Tripathy represents Banki Assembly seat, which is a constituent of Mahtab’s Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency.

However, Mahtab, while issuing the clarification, did not restrain himself taking potshots at the CBI. “The way they are going ahead with the investigation, it indicates that there is some political motive behind it.”

He said the BJP’s present national president Amit Shah had to face a CBI inquiry and was arrested in connection with a murder case. Mahtab also referred to the CBI interrogation in the snoopgate case involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he was the Gujarat chief minister.

He recalled that the BJP used to term the CBI as the Congress Bureau of Investigation. “There is a perception that the CBI acts as an instrument of the ruling party at the Centre.”

In another development, Tripathy’s supporters today organised a meeting at Banki in their leader’s support and condemned the arrest.

One of his close associates, Pranab Patel, today scoffed at the rumour that the CBI interrogated him yesterday. “Without ascertaining the facts, people continue to write against us. I had gone to meet the leader to hand over certain medicines,” he said, clarifying about his visit to the CBI office.

The CBI has booked Tripathy on charges of criminal conspiracy and receiving huge sums of money from the money deposit collection conglomerate, AT Group.

The CBI today renewed its effort to find out whether Tripathy had favoured the AT group chief Pradeep Sethy by recommending his name to the state co-operative union to confer on him the best co-operator award.