Relief for 5 in Artha Tatwa chit fund case

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Friday granted conditional bail to five persons, who were arrested by CBI, for their alleged links with chit fund company Artha Tatwa.
Those granted relief by the high court are Manoj Das, proprietor of a local television channel; Bikash Swain, owner of a vernacular daily; Vineet Lalani, a builder and two Artha Tatwa officials Sambit Khuntia and Manoj Patnaik.
The high court has directed all of them to cooperate with the investigating agency.This apart, the court has set different bail amounts for the five accused.
Manoj Das was arrested in September 2014 for his suspected complicity with the AT Group. Das had allegedly taken Rs 90 lakh from AT Group CMD Pradip Sethy for leasing out bandwidth for operating six television channels.
Bikash Swain, proprietor of an Odia newspaper, and Lalani were arrested in 2014 after CBI found some dubious business transactions with AT Group. Similarly, cases were registered against Sambit and Patnaik for embezzling funds.
While granting bail to the five, the court observed that investigations in the case had made good progress and now the five cannot tamper with evidence.