Odisha HC completes hearing on Pravat Tripathy’s anticipatory bail plea; reserves verdict

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 29:

The Odisha High Court on Monday reserved its verdict after completing the hearing on the anticipatory bail petition filed by senior BJD leader Pravat Tripathy.

“The hearing has been completed and the honourable court has reserved its judgement after hearing arguments from both sides,” Tripathy’s counsel Pitambar Acharya told OST over phone from Cuttack.

The hearing in the anticipatory bail case was delayed because of the cease work by members of the High Court Bar Association in protest against the arrest of former advocate general Ashok Mohanty.

The Banki MLA has already been questioned by the CBI, which is probing the multi thousand crore chit fund scam in Odisha, for six hours about his alleged links with the AT group chief Pradeep Sethy.

His residences in Banki and Cuttack have also been raided and bank accounts of his close aide Subash Padhi scrutinised by the central investigating agency last month.

Apprehending arrest by the CBI,  Tripathy had moved the Odisha High Court on September 15, seeking anticipatory bail after his house was raided by the CBI team probing the chit fund scam in August.

A day after Tripathy moved the High Court, he was interrogated for over five hours at the Bhubaneswar CBI office in connection with his alleged links with AT Group chief Pradip Sethy.

He had, however, refused to divulge anything to the media about the interrogation.

It may be mentioned here that the CBI, during simultaneous raids on the houses of Tripathy at Banki and at Kaligali in Cuttack, had seized some important documents apparently confirming his links with the AT Group.

Later, the residence of his close associate Subash Padhi in Banki was also raided and his bank accounts scrutinised by CBI officials for possible leads to Tripathy’s financial transactions with the tainted chit fund company.

Ashish Sahu, a member of the state executive committee of the ruling Biju Janata Dal, known to have been very close to some influential BJD MLAs and ministers including Tripathy, was also interrogated on September 14 for over four hours by the CBI for his alleged links with the AT Group.