BHUBANESWAR: Dharmasala MLA Pranab Kumar Balabantaray appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday after the Central agency summoned him on May 4. The legislator appeared before the agency at 3 pm and was questioned by the sleuths for over three hours.
The agency had summoned Balabantaray for his alleged links with arrested Dhalasamanta brothers. However, after coming out of the ED office in IRC Village area here, Balabantaray told mediapersons that he had no links with Dhalasamanta brothers. “I never had any links with Dhalasamanta brothers and I told this before the ED officers,” Balabantaray said.
“The officers had asked me to produce documents of Balabantaray Transport and Minerals Private Limited. I submitted five years documents of the company to the ED officers and they scrutinised the papers,” he added.
The Central agency had sought Balabantaray Transport’s audit reports from financial year 2005-2006 to 2009-2010. Besides this, ED had also asked the legislator for all the transactions allegedly made between him and Sushant Dhalasamanta and his brother Sushil Dhalasamanta. The legislator’s supporters had also assembled near the ED office and left along with him after 6 pm. Balabantaray was earlier questioned by the CBI in connection with the chit-fund scam.