BHUBANESWAR: Former additional Government advocate Debashis Panda appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) here on Monday. He was quizzed for about an hour by the probe agency sleuths.
This is the second time Panda has turned up before the investigating agency in the last five days. Panda said he was asked by CBI to produce some documents related to the case which he did. Panda declined to comment further on the matter saying it is under investigation.
On April 2, he was first questioned by the agency when he turned up on the Orissa High Court direction. The HC had asked him to cooperate with the CBI in investigation while granting him protection.
A counsel with the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Panda’s name has cropped in connection with former Advocate General Ashok Mohanty’s purchase of a property from AT Group chief Pradeep Sethy. The CBI too had seized some documents relating to the advocate during its raid on arrested Crime Branch officer Pramod Panda.
Meanwhile, the ED, which is digging into the affairs of AT Group, has been granted six-day custody of two former directors of the Ponzi firm. On Monday, the Khurda District and Sessions Court heard ED’s petitions seeking remand of Sambit Khuntia and Srikrushna Padhi and passed the order.
The agency, which is tracing the money laundering part, had previously taken AT chief Pradeep Sethy and another Director Manoj Patnaik on remand.