Bhubaneswar, Jan. 11: The CBI today grilled Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) secretary Ashirbad Behera in connection with a money laundering scam by a deposit collection company.
This is the fifth time that the senior OCA office-bearer was grilled by the central agency in the past two years.
Behera was grilled today following the arrest of Ranjan Das, the chief of Swastik India and an aide of ruling BJD legislator from Banki, Pravat Tripathy, on Wednesday for allegedly duping investors.
Ranjan, who was earlier arrested and granted bail for his alleged links with Artha Tatwa (AT) Group, had allegedly bought Balasore Bagha, a franchise in the first edition of Odisha Premier League.
However, Behera after being interrogated for around two hours clarified that he was being called in connection with the AT Group.
"I have not come here for any link with Swastik India, but in connection with the AT Group. I furnished a few documents in connection with the OCA's association with the firm," said Behera after coming out of the CBI office.
The investigating agency had found that the AT Group had given Rs 1 crore to the OCA to sponsor the title of OPL I and the Odisha Ranji team's visit to Australia in 2011. The CBI today also interrogated four other office-bearers of the cricketing body.
On August 16, 2014, the CBI had raided the association's office and Behera's residence. Sources said that around Rs 5 crore had been invested in the first edition of OPL.
Apart from the franchise fees, which ranged between Rs 27 lakh and Rs 55 lakh, each of them is said to have spent around Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh during the tournament.
As many as 10 franchises had participated in the tournament. However, its second edition was cancelled after the income tax officials hounded the team owners about the source of money invested in the tournament. Though the OCA tried to revive its third edition, it could not take off.
Officials of the CBI said that they would continue interrogating the OCA office-bearers to ascertain their link with Ranjan Das.
"We strongly suspect that Das had diverted investments of people to his franchise in the cricket tournament," said a CBI official.
