Mystery fire in Odisha bank raided by CBI raises suspicion

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Banki, Sep 29:

Computers, printers, scanners and several important documents were destroyed in a mysterious fire that broke out at the Banki Central Cooperative Bank in Odisha’s Cuttack district here today.

The manager of the bank told reporters that when the bank’s staff came to open the bank this morning, they found smoke emanating from the building and bank secretary’s chamber completely gutted. He said the exact estimate of the damage caused due to the fire can be only ascertained after the technical team of the bank arrived and made a thorough examination. The reason behind the fire could be electric short circuit, he surmised.

This is the same bank which the CBI had raided on August 20 to scrutinize the bank account transactions of Subas Padhi, a close associate of former government chief whip and BJD MLA from Banki Pravat Tripathy in connection with the mega chit fund scam in Odisha.

Padhi was also interrogated on August 18 for nearly seven hours on his alleged links with the AT group, which is currently under the CBI scanner. The raids were carried out on the basis of the information obtained from him during the interrogation.

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