Bhubaneswar, Oct. 25: The CBI today questioned Banki’s BJD MLA Banki Pravat Tripathy for the fourth time for his alleged links with the multi-crore money deposit company, Artha Tatwa (AT).
Sixty-one-year-old Tripathy was summoned to the CBI office after Orissa High Court refused to grant him interim relief on October 20. Rejecting the bail plea, the court had said the materials so far collected by the agency and the prima facie evidence established the link of Tripathy with the crime.
Tripathy grilled for nearly one-and-a-half-hours today.
As president of the Odisha State Co-operative Union, Tripathy had recommended name of the AT group chief, Pradeep Sethy, to the co-operative union to confer the Best Youth Co-operator award to him in 2010.
The group’s application for the award was submitted to the co-operative union three days before the award ceremony.
Confirming this, Tripathy said: “I submitted all the documents related to how the scrutiny committee of the state co-operative society had selected Sethy for the best youth co-operator award.”
Sources said the CBI had suspected that the award was given to Sethy to boost his public image that would help him expand his business empire.
He answered in the negative when asked whether the CBI had asked anything other than this issue, including the controversial Compact Disk (CD).
Tripathy categorically said the agency had not asked him anything about the CD purportedly carrying a conversation between him and Sethy. In the CD, which had surfaced last year, the MLA is heard requesting Sethy for sponsorship for the annual Banki Festival.
Earlier, the CBI had raided the house of Tripathy in Banki and Cuttack and seized a number of documents. The agency had also raided the house of his close associates to find out Tripathy’s financial transactions with the AT.
Tripathy was the fourth BJD leader after Mayurbhanj MP Rama Chandra Hansdah, the party’s vice-president and Rajya Sabha member Kalapataru Das’s MLA son Pranab Balabantaray and former Keonjhar MLA Subarna Nayak to be quizzed by the central agency for their alleged connections with ponzy companies.
While Balabantaray was questioned for a land deal in Bhubaneswar, Hansdha and Nayak were quizzed on Naba Diganta Capital Service Limited. Former BJP MLA Hitesh Bagrati was also questioned in this connection.
The CBI today also questioned two officials of the Odisha Cricket Association in connection with the AT scam. The AT Group was the main sponsor in the inaugural edition of the Odisha Premier League-2011.
The CBI today also questioned an official of the Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation about the supply of nearly two quintals of gold ornaments to Seashore Group, another money-deposit circulation company. General manager of the corporation Gajendra Patra said: “This is a public sector undertaking and there is nothing illegal in the transaction. We submitted all the documents on our transactions with the Seashore Group.”
The economic offence wing of the crime branch today arrested director of Sai Pragati Group, a money deposit collection company, Uday Kumar Dalei, from his native place in Dhenkanal district. The company had fraudulently duped hundreds of depositors of several crores of rupees by floating attractive schemes with offers of lucrative returns on deposits. The wing had taken up the case after the depositors had lodged a complaint at Capital police station and seized cash worth around Rs 2.77 crore. The wing had earlier also arrested managing director of the company, Debasish Mohanty, and another director, Ravishankar Nanda.
