Keonjhar: Odisha police today froze as many as five bank accounts of Champua MLA Sanatan Mahakud having Rs 165 crore balance in connection with transportation of Rs 50 lakh in cash in a car to his house.

Sources said five IndusInd Bank accounts of Mahakud, the richest MLA in the State, were frozen as he failed to depose before the cops to explain the sources of seized Rs 50 lakh.

The independent legislator didn’t come to police station citing his poor health condition, sources added.

Notably, the cops, on Saturday, arrested manager and two other staff of IndusInd Bank in the district after they were found transporting Rs 50 lakh in cash in a car to the MLA’s house without proper documents.

Kenojhar superintendent of police Rajesh Pandit  had informed that Manas Rout, manager of the bank’s Joda branch, sales officer Saroj Behera and gunman Sanatana Pradhan were arrested on charges of abetment to riots.

It was found that the bank manager was not carrying any cheques to substantiate the large volume of cash he was transporting, the SP added.

Recently, the truck-driver-turned-politician was in the news after he announced to form a new political party—the Jana Samrudha Party-- and field candidates in all the 147 assembly constituencies in the next Assembly polls in Odisha.

Mahakud, who had declared his assets worth Rs 51 crore in the 2014 assembly elections, has allegedly minted money during the mining boom in Keonjhar between 2004 and 2008.