Odisha chit fund scam: Court rejects Preeti Bhatia’s bail plea

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Nov 13:

The Khordha district and sessions court today rejected the bail plea of Mumbai based model cum television serial producer Preeti Bhatia, now lodged in the Jharpada jail here after being arrested by the CBI for her alleged links with the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group, a major player in the mega Odisha chit fund scam.

The special CBI court here had rejected the bail plea of Bhatia and had sent her to judicial custody on October 24.

The Mumbai based model was arrested by the CBI on October 10 for her alleged business links with chit fund firm AT Group’s chief Pradeep Kumar Sethy and was produced before the special CBI court on October 14 by the Central investigating agency on completion of her four-day remand period.

The CBI had raided Bhatia’s house in Mumbai on August 16 and had found business links between Bhatia and Pradeep Kumar Sethy, who are directors in a company called Prism Heights Films & Entertainment Private Limited, with its registered office at Santa Cruz (West) in Mumbai.

There are allegations that the AT Group chief Sethy had invested crores of depositors’ money in this company.

Bhatia was arrested on October 10 after she failed to account for her monetary transactions with Pradip Kumar Sethy.