Odisha chit fund scam: ED takes AT director on 7-day remand

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Feb 24:

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today took Manoj Pattnaik, one of the directors of the AT Group, a major player in the Odisha chit fund scam, on a seven-day remand for interrogation on the money trail in the case.

The Central investigative agency had filed a petition on February 11 before the District and Session Judge Court here  seeking permission to take Pattnaik, on a seven-day remand for interrogation, which was granted by the court yesterday.

“Patnaik will be interrogated on the money trail and the property he possessed in his name. We have also got information from the duped investors and Pradip Sethy, CMD of AT group who was in ED custody earlier, that Patnaik had purchased several properties and land with AT money,” a senior official of the ED said.

Earlier, the CBI had taken Patnaik on a five-day remand to interrogate him on the larger conspiracy conspiracy angle in the financial fraud by the AT group.

Pattnaik, who had been handling the AT Group’s gold trading business, had been arrested by the police in connection with the company’s financial fraud on May 31 last year.

Pattnaik, who at the time had managed to get an anticipatory bail in connection with a cheating-case in AT Group, was rearrested after police slapped a second case against him relating to fraud in gold trading by the company.

He had reportedly embezzled nearly Rs 4 crore of AT funds, CBI sources said.