BHUBANESWAR: The State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday took possession of a flat belonging to Kamyab TV owner Manoj Das who is currently behind bars for his alleged involvement in the multi-hundred crore chit fund scam.
Das, who had taken `10 crore loan from the nationalised bank during 2005-06, had failed to repay the full loan.
A team of SBI along with Nayapalli Police arrived at Amrita Residency in Jayadev Vihar where the TV channel owner and his wife possessed two flats - one five BHK and another two BHK unit. The bank officials allowed the family members of Das to collect their personal belongings before the flat was vacated and seized. Another flat will be taken over on Thursday.
Sources said Das was able to repay about `3 crore and despite demand notices for the rest, he did not pay up. Since his houses were mortgaged along with other property, the bank had attached the flats and wanted to auction the same.
However, Das had got a stay order on the auction but his failure to meet the repayment conditions led to vacation of the relief.
Actually, the loan from SBI was secured by Kamyab Exports Ltd of which Das was the Managing Director and his wife Lipi Das was a Director. The firm was into mineral trading business.
Das is currently lodged at Special Jail, Jharpada after his arrest in connection with the ponzi scam in September last year. He had got into an agreement with Artha Tatwa Group CMD Pradeep Sethy who wanted to set up a TV channel.
Sethi allegedly wanted to use teleports of Kamyab TV for which he had paid `90 lakh to Das. However, after CBI investigation, Das failed to produce relevant documents to validate that he had taken the money for renting the teleports and it led to his arrest.