Odisha chit fund scam: Accused Jagabandhu Panda puts Twin City police in dock

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar,  Dec 24:

Jagabandhu Panda, former director of Artha Tatwa Group arrested by the CBI in connection with the Odisha chit fund scam, today put the Commissionerate police in the dock saying the investigating officer who investigated the case before it was handed over to the CBI was taking orders from AT group chief Pradeep Sethy and should be interrogated by the central agency.

Panda was talking to media persons while coming out of the Capital Hospital where a medical test was conducted on him as per the arrest procedure. He will be produced in the special CBI court later in the day at the end of his extended remand period.

“As long as the commissionerate police was investigating the AT chit fund scam, most of the directors of the company got favours from the investigating officer,” he said.

Alleging that the properties of 25 directors of AT  had not been seized by the then IIC of Kharvela Nagar police station, the IO in the case, Panda said the CBI should grill the IO and seize and attach the properties from these directors, which would help compensate the depositirs duped by the company. Some of them had not been arrested either, he pointed out.

He further alleged that the IO was investigating the case on the direction of company CMD Pradeep Sethy. “Sethy was the real investigating officer in the case, not the police,” he said.