BHUBANESWAR: After Trinamool Congress, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now come to haunt Biju Janata Dal as the probe agency on Thursday cracked down against lawmakers of the ruling dispensation in connection with the chit fund scam in the Seashore Group of Companies.
The premier investigating agency raided the office and house premises of BJD MP RK Jena and legislator Pravat Biswal as part of the searches across 25 places in the State and outside.
Sources said, the CBI teams raided the house and office of BJD MP Jena at Balasore while Biswal’s houses in MLA Colony at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack's Mahanadi Vihar were also searched. The house of Saroj Sahu, a /former aide of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, was also searched by the probe agency.
The agency sources said, a private MBA college in Balasore and its promoter’s house also came under the raids. Jena is on the advisory board of the educational institute.
The BJD MP, also a successful industrialist, who has also been served summon may appear before the agency on Thursday. His office in Balasore was raided and he was quizzed in December.
Jena’s Supratik Group had apparently extended a loan of Rs 18 crore to Seashore Group during 2010-11 and while the latter had paid back, it still owes some money to the former. This dealing had brought the MP under the scanner of the agency. Before being an MP, he also was CEO of Balasore Alloys from 2007 to 2011.
Biswal, on the other hand, has been under radar of the CBI over a land deal by his wife with Seashore Group chief Prashant Dash. Besides, tourism projects undertaken by the chit fund firm in Cuttack and the MLA’s role had also led to suspicion of financial transactions.
As far as Saroj Sahu is concerned, the former officer assistant of the CM, had been quizzed by the CBI for his alleged links with the Ponzi company.
The Seashore Group scam is estimated at about Rs 1000 crore. The CBI, ED as well as Economic Offences Wing have confiscated assets of the firm in the past.
Currently, two TMC lawmakers Tapas Paul and Sudip Bandyopadhyay are in jail in Bhubaneswar after being arrested by CBI over the Rose Valley scam.