The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday searched houses of Rajya Sabha Member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra on charges of his alleged links with tainted chit fund company - Seashore Group.
A CBI team carried out the search in his residence at Sahid Nagar locality of the city. In more than four hours of search, the five-member CBI team examined the bank accounts and other financial dealings of Mr. Mohapatra, who is president of Odisha Jan Morcha, a political outfit.
Raid was also conducted at his New Delhi residence in connection with multi-crore chit fund scam probe. In fact, the premier investigating agency had conducted raids at 18 locations across the country.
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“In the ongoing chit fund scam probe in Odisha, searches have been conducted by CBI at 18 locations for alleged links with Seashore group of companies. Searches are going on at one place each at Delhi and Mumbai and at 16 other places at Odisha,” a CBI spokesperson said.
Retired IAS officers
He said: “The main places include residences of Mr. Mohapatra, two retired IAS officers, offices of an industrialist, brokers through whom cash dealings were made and residences of certain other close associates of Seashore group chairman and managing director Prasant Dash.”
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Soon after the search, Mr. Mohpatra, who was regarded as chief advisor to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in government functions and party affairs prior to 2012, said: “I welcome the CBI search. I am ready to cooperate in the investigation. The CBI investigation would in fact help by cause as a misinformation campaign had been launched that I had amassed huge sum of money.”
The Rajya Sabha member was quizzed for more than two hours by Enforcement Directorate here on Monday.
House of former chairman of State-owned Agriculture Promotion and Investment Corporation Ltd were raided at Titlagarh. One of CBI teams reached Rourkela, where premise of Subha Ispat, an industrial house, was searched.
Sources said CBI had tasted good success when it raided an apartment near Bhubaneswar Railway Station. One Subhankar Nayak, who was said to have brokered deals between the chit fund company with bureaucrats, politicians, real estate companies and industrial houses. After the raid, he was taken to CBI’s local office here.
On Tuesday, CBI continued its probe to decode the link between AT Group, another tainted Ponzi company, and Odisha Cricket Association. OCA Secretary Ashirbad Behera along with its other office bearers was questioned at CBI’s local office here.