Ex-AG’s arrest: Odisha opposition rejects BJD defence

Reoorted by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, Sep 23:

Soon after former Odisha Advocate General Ashok Mohanty was arrested by CBI this afternoon for his alleged links with the chit fund scamster Pradip Sethy, an embarrassed ruling Biju Janata Dal was quick to term it as Mohanty’s ‘personal affair’ with which their government had little to do.

But the opposition parties are in no mood to buy this.

“Since Mohanty is no more the Advocate General of Odisha, his arrest is his personal affair. He is solely responsible for his misdeeds. The government has nothing to do with it”, said senior BJD leader Sashi Bhushan Behera.

He went in to say, action should be taken against the former A-G if he has misused his constitutional status during his tenure.

While the ruling party and the state government have tried hard to distance themselves from Mohanty, the opposition Congress and BJP lashed out at the government for its laughable defence.

“Firstly, the government wants to let us believe that the involvement of ruling party politicians in the chit fund scam as personal affair of the individual concerned and now it says the same about the AG’s arrest. The government is neck deep in the chit fund scam. It can’t escape from it by making such ridiculous statements and excuses,” said senior BJP leader Suresh Pujari.

Terming the alleged involvement of Mohanty in the chit fund scam ‘unfortunate’, he said the CBI has exposed the so-called clean image of Naveen Patnaik.

“The Crime Branch had been shielding the influential persons in the chit fund scam all this while. But, now the CBI has exposed the involvement of ruling party politicians and others. The people have lost faith in the government after such incidents,” said Congress leader Sarat Rout.