Chit fund scam: CBI raids Odisha Gramya Bank branch at Banki

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 20:

The crackdown in connection with the mega Odisha chit fund scam continued on Wednesday with a four-member CBI team conducting raids on the Banki branches of Odisha Gramya Bank (OGB) and two other banks.

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file pic

Today’s raids on the Banki banks, which lasted about an hour, are believed to be linked to the raid on local BJD leader Subas Padhi on Monday and the seizure of several documents from his residence, sources said.

The transactions of Padhi in the accounts of Padhi in these banks, which included the Banki Central Cooperative Bank, were scrutinised during the raids today, the sources said.

Padhi, a close associate of senior BJD leader and Banki MLA Prabhat Tripathy, was interrogated for nearly seven hours on Monday on his links with the AT group which is currently under the CBI scanner. Today’s raids were carried out on the basis of the information obtained from him during the interrogation, the sources said.

Tripathy, it may be noted, had strongly batted for Padhi on Monday saying the latter was a highly respected local leader and any suggestion about his possible links with chit fund companies was preposterous.

Meanwhile, Sahadev Khunta police today arrested two directors of “Wisemen Resources India Limited’, another chit fund company, in Balasore today.

The two directors, Pravas Sharan Jena and Ramesh Chandra Patra, have been accused of duping gullible investors of at least Rs 50 lakh, police said.

They were being interrogated and would be produced in the court later in the day, sources said.

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