Odisha chit fund scam: CBI files first charge sheet in AT case

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Dec 11:

The CBI today filed its preliminary chargesheet in the case against the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group, a major player in the  multi-thousand crore chit fund scam in Odisha.

Artha Tatwa

Investigating Officer (IO) of the case G K Pradhan and senior counsel K C Mishra submitted the chargesheet against 16 persons, including AT Group chief Pradeep Kumar Sethy, BJD MLA from Banki Pravat Tripathy and former Advocate General Ashok Mohanty, in the special CBI court here.

The charge sheet, containing 233 pages and cites 304 witnesses, has slapped charges sections against the accused under several sections of the IPC, including 120 (B), 406, 411, 409, 420, 468, 471 of IPC and sections 4, 5, 6 of the Prize Chitt and Money Circulation (Banning) Act, 1978.

The preliminary charge sheet against the AT group said it duped investors of at least Rs 200 crore by floating seven companies in the state: AT Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, AT Multi state Cooperative society, AT Infra India Limited, AT Enterprises Private Ltd, Orison Properties Pvt Ltd, Kamyab TV Private Ltd, Tilakraj Publication Private Limited.

Ccourt officials, however, refused to reveal how many pages the charge sheet contained.

The chargesheet filed today is only a preliminary one to meet the statutory requirement of filing the chargesheet within 120 days and a supplementary chargesheet could follow, said sources in the CBI.

This is the second chargesheet filed by the CBI in the mega chit fund scam in Odisha which it is investgating as per the ordersof the Supreme Court.

The CBI’s first chargesheet in the chit fund scam case was against Green India Private Limited on December 2.

Complete list of the 16 persons charge sheeted today:

1- Pradeep Sethy, Chief Managing Driector (CMD)

2- Jyotiprakash Jayprakash, Director
3- Sambit Kumar Khuntia, Director
4- Shreekrushna Padhi, AT Accountant
5- Bikash Swain, Proprietor of Odia daily ‘Suryaprava’
6- Ranjan Kumar Dash, Co-founder of the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group and Founder of Swastik India Multi-State Cooperative Agency
7- Manoj Kumar Dash, Kamyab Television owner
8- Madhusudan Mohanty, Proprietor of Odia newspaper ‘Odisha Bhaskar’
9- Dharmendra Kumar Bothra, Real Estate broker
10- Deepak Chandratan Parekh, Mumbai-based stock exchange broker
11- Ashok Mohanty, Former Odisha Advocate General
12- Preeti Bhatia, Mumbai-based Model and Television Serial Producer
13- Pravat Kumar Tripathy, BJD MLA from Banki
14- Vineet Kumar Lalani, Builder
15- Dillip Kumar Mohanty, Businessman
16-Sagar Kumar Ray, Builder and DirectorofOrisons Properties Limited

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