Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Oct 14:

Reserving its verdict on the bail plea filed by the counsel for Mumbai based model and television producer Preeti Bhatia for an unscheduled date, the special CBI court in the Odisha capital today sent her to judicial custody till October 24.

Preeti Bhatia ( pic- Biswaranjan Mishra) Preeti Bhatia ( pic- Biswaranjan Mishra)

Bhatia was produced before the court this evening by the CBI, which had taken her on a four-day remand that ended today. She was brought o the court after a medical examination at Capital hospital here.

The Mumbai model would spend the next 10 days at Jharpada jail here.

While sending her on judicial custody, the court, however, imposed certain conditions. The conditions enjoin upon the jail authorities to ensure that she is not subjected to any harassment and provide her proper care, including regular medical check ups.

They would also be required to report her health condition to the court. She will be allowed to meet her family members, relatives and counsels during jail visiting hours, the order said.

While Bhatia’s counsel had moved a bail petition on her behalf, it was not heard today due to death of an advocate. It would be taken up at the next hearing in the case on sometime after October 24 which is still not decided, the court sources said.

The bail plea of Bhatia will be heard in the District and Session Judge Court here after the end of her judicial custody following the submission of proper documents by both Bhatia’s counsel and the CBI.

During her remand period, the CBI had interrogated Bhatia on her alleged links with Artha Tatwa group chairman Pradip Sethy and about the monetary transaction between them.

The CBI has extracted some crucial information on the dubious business transactions of Prism Heights Films and Entertainment Private Limited with the tainted Artha Tatwa group during the course of its interrogation of Bhatia who was one of the three directors in the company.

The other two directors in Prism Heights are Sethy and Indu Dewan, which has its registered office at Santa Cruz (West) area in Mumbai.

The investigating agency has failed to get the details of alleged monetary transactions of Rs 1.80 crore from the total amount of Rs 4 crore taken by Bhatia from the Artha Tatwa Group to invest it in the entertainment company. The CBI is now planning to detain Indu Dewan to get these details.

Bhatia has reportedly told the CBI that she came to know Sethy through Dewan. CBI has started a manhunt to detain Dewan so far.

Notably the court here had allowed the CBI, which is probing the multi-thousand crore Odisha chit fund scam, to take Bhatia on a four-day remand on October 10.

She was arrested on the same day after she failed to account for the monetary transactions with Sethy, CBI sources said.