Naveen Patnaik and Narendra Modi.

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 7: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who returned from Delhi after a five-day long trip, today asserted that he had no discussions related to the ongoing CBI probe into the money deposit circulation scam with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Yesterday’s meeting between Naveen and Modi assumed significance as the CBI has intensified its probe to find out the political patronage extended by the state government to the sham companies.

Senior BJP leader Ashok Sahu has posted a letter on a social networking site claiming that Naveen had a discussion about the ongoing CBI probe with the Prime Minister.

On being asked whether he had taken up the issue with Modi that the CBI has started targeting the ruling party leaders in the state, Naveen said: “No, no discussion at all on this issue.”

However, the chief minister evaded another question on what would be his reaction to the ongoing spat between the minister Damodar Rout and Odisha Jan Moracha (OJM) chief Pyari Mohan Mohapatra about the ruling party’s alleged patronage to the Seashore group of companies.

On October 2, Rout had said that money circulation business of the Seashore group had thrived because of the patronage it had received from the state government between 2009 and 2011.

He had accused Mohapatra of backing Seashore when as Rajya Sabha member he used to call the shots in the BJD.

However, Mohapatra had said the ongoing CBI inquiry was being done at his initiative and he had never tried to influence the state government to ensure the growth of any sham company.

Even senior Congress leader Srikant Jena had stated that the only agenda of the government was to slow down the ongoing CBI probe into the money circulation deposit scam and to avoid a possible CBI probe into the mining scam.

The BJD is in a state of shock after two of its MLAs — Pranab Balabantaray and Pravat Tripathy — were questioned about their involvement in the money circulation deposit scam. The party’s Lok Sabha MP from Mayurbhanj Ramchandra Hansda’s house has already been raided. Speculation is rife that a few more BJD leaders would be summoned by the central agency for questioning. The agency had also arrested former advocate-general Asok Mohanty, who later got bail from the court.

What has put the state government on a backfoot is that despite the warning from the Centre, it had gone on signing a number of MoUs in tourism, health and co-operative sectors with the Seashore group.

Throwing more light on the issues he discussed with Modi, the chief minister said, among other things, he had raised the issue of special category state status to the state and special funds required for the Nabakalebara festival scheduled to be held next year. The meeting between the two leaders had lasted for nearly 35 minutes.