BHUBANESWAR: Intensifying its probe into the financial transactions of Cuttack-Choudwar MLA Pravat Biswal and his wife Laxmi Bilasini Biswal in the land sale deal with Seashore Group chief Prashant Dash, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started scanning the bank details of the couple.
On Tuesday, it quizzed the manager of United Bank of India's Jagatpur branch about the loans that the MLA had taken for house building purposes.
The bank officer, Debendra Mohanty, said Biswal had taken a `20 lakh and another `30 lakh loan from the branch for house building in 2009. While he has already paid off the `20 lakh loan, repayment of the `30 lakh loan is still underway.
The probe agency is looking into all the angles of the financial transactions in connection with the land deal with the Seashore chief.
Since 2014, the CBI has been inquiring Biswal's land deal with Dash for a land measuring 34 'guntha' at Benapur Mouza in Jajpur district. Dash had claimed to have paid `25 lakh for the land in cheques in April 2012 while the rest amount was to be paid after registration. Dash cancelled the deal later and wanted his money back.
While the MLA and his wife have claimed to have paid back the money, the CBI is examining how the refund took place. It was in this connection that six persons, including three contractors, were grilled by the agency on Monday. The contractors had claimed to have paid `1 lakh each to Biswal as loan and presented affidavits to prove their point.
Sources said the CBI will put the affidavits under forensic verification to check the authenticity of signatures of the parties involved. Similarly, the land agreement paper is also being verified to ascertain if it was carried out before the deal or was done as an afterthought. The signatures will also be put to handwriting checks.
Earlier, the MLA's wife had claimed that the entire deal was conducted on agreement papers and she had submitted money receipts substantiating that the money was returned after Dash cancelled the deal.