Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Oct 14:

Keeping the interim relief granted to former government chief whip and BJD MLA from Banki Pravat Tripathy in force, the Odisha High Court today decided to conduct hearing on his anticipatory bail plea on Wednesday.

The CBI today submitted Tripathy’s voice test report and case diary to the High Court.

Pravat Tripathy, BJD leader Pravat Tripathy, BJD leader

The High Court had yesterday extended the interim relief granted to Tripathy by one day while posting the hearing on his anticipatory bail plea for today.

The High Court on September 30 had granted Tripathy interim relief from arrest by the CBI till October 13 on charges of his complicity with the Artha Tatwa Group’s financial fraud in the mega chit fund scam.

The court while granting interim relief to Tripathy had asked the CBI to submit the forensic lab report of the voice test that sought to match his voice in a recorded phone conversation with the voice recorded by the CBI during his interrogation.

Tripathy, whose house was raided in August by the CBI in connection with its probe into the chit fund scam, had moved the High Court on September 15 seeking anticipatory bail, apprehending that the Central agency may arrest him anytime.

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.

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 scrutinized 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.

Again computers, printers, scanners and several important documents were destroyed in a mysterious fire that broke out at the Banki Central Cooperative Bank on September 29, the same bank which the CBI had raided on August 20 to scrutinize the bank account transactions of Subas Padhi in connection with the mega chit fund scam in Odisha.