BHUBANESWAR: The war of words between Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) escalated once again on the run-up to the panchayat polls hours after the ruling party MP Rabindra Kumar Jena came under the radar of the Central Excise sleuths.
Jena’s office at OT Road and factory of OM Pipes were raided on Monday by the Central Excise officials almost a month after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) went after him. The Lok Sabha member said he had no clue why the central agency was targeting him.
“First, it was CBI, now the Central Excise. It looks like politically motivated because the panchayat elections are drawing close,” Jena said, only to receive a rebuttal from Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram who told a private TV channel that the BJP MP has been spared in the past. He must thank his stars that he is not behind bars, he added.
“I have been into business for long and never before have I faced any such investigation,” he said, adding that he could not get any satisfactory answer from the investigators about the complaints basing on which the raids were being conducted.
On January 12, the CBI had raided Jena’s office, home at Balasore and residence at New Delhi in connection with the Seashore Group loan deal. Supratik Group, which Jena heads, had taken a term loan of Rs 18 crore from Seashore Group.
While the premier probe agency had issued summons to the MP in this regard, Jena applied for anticipatory bail from the Orissa High Court.