CBI to take Sethy on remand again

BHUBANESWAR: The CBI has decided to take Artha Tatwa (AT) Group's chief Pradeep Sethy on remand again to confront him with BJD MLA Pravat Tripathy and media house owner Madhu Mohanty for their alleged links in the chit fund scam.
While the central investigating agency arrested Mohanty on September 14, it grilled Tripathy for nearly six hours on Tuesday.
"We will call Tripathy again for questioning as he avoided some of our questions relating to his link with AT Group. We will call him after taking Sethy on remand," said a CBI officer. "Mohanty, who is currently in our custody, would also be asked about his link in Sethy's presence," the officer added.
On Tuesday, CBI sent an audio CD, purportedly containing the conversation between Sethy and Tripathy, to the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Hyderabad for verification.
The police commissionerate, which was earlier probing the AT Group scam, had given a clean chit to Tripathy after testing the CD at the State Forensic Science Laboratory here.
Tripathy is accused of taking money from Sethy to organize a festival in his constituency, Banki. Tripathy denied the charges.
A day after his interrogation, opposition Congress demanded his resignation. "Tripathy should relinquish his membership in the assembly. Involvement of several ruling party leaders in the chit fund scam indicates corruption in the government. The CBI should bring chief minister Naveen Patnaik under its purview of investigation," said OPCC president Jayadev Jena.
Apart from his alleged complicity in AT Group, Tripathy is likely to land in trouble in the fraud by Swastik India, a money circulation company, being probed by the CBI. Swastik India's founder Ranjan Das, who was a former director of AT Group, is a close aide of Tripathy. Das is in CBI custody after being arrested in the AT Group scam on September 5.
Police in Sundargarh and Bargarh districts on May 10 and May 12 respectively filed separate cases against Swastik India officials under Section 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and under various sections of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.
Two company functionaries were arrested. But Das was not apprehended.
Police said Swastik India illegally raised money from the market promising high returns though it had no such mandate to do so.
On its website, www.simcoop.in, Swastik promised fixed deposits at 11% to 13% interest rates, recurring deposits at 9.5% to 14%, retirement deposits at 9% to 12% and regular income scheme with a return of 12% to 15% interest rates.