BHUBANESWAR: Senior IAS officer Bishnupada Sethi has landed in a spot of bother with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) serving a notice on him in connection with the Rs 10 lakh bribery case related to a senior executive of Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited, a central public sector undertaking headquartered in Kolkata.
The 1995 batch officer was asked to join the investigation on Wednesday at the agency’s Bhubaneswar office but Sethi, apparently, has not shown up.
The CBI registered a case against the group general manager of Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited, Chanchal Mukherjee and three others on December 7.
In its notice to Sethi, the investigating officer of CBI's Anti-Corruption-II in New Delhi said: “It is learnt that you are acquainted with some important and relevant facts as well as the circumstances of this case and these required to be ascertained from you.”
The IAS officer, however, did not visit the CBI office. He reportedly has sought time from the CBI through his lawyer for his personal appearance, said sources.
Calls to Sethi for his response over the matter were not responded to. Sethi is currently in charge of three administrative departments. He is the principal secretary of the Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities department apart from being in additional charge of ST and SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare and Odia Language Literature and Culture departments.
The investigating agency had also summoned three official drivers deputed by the departments assigned to the IAS officer in regard with the case. One of the drivers, Nrusingha Charan Satpathy, appeared before the central agency on Saturday. Satpathy told mediapersons that the CBI inquired about Sethi’s movements and if his government accommodation has CCTV cameras to which he replied that no devices are installed outside.
"I started working as the official driver two months back after Sethi was assigned ST and SC Development department," said Satpathy.
The driver informed the CBI officers that he had dropped Sethi at his official quarters at about 7.40 pm on December 7, the day Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited's group GM was held near a plush hotel in the capital.
The agency quizzed and asked Sathpathy about the senior bureaucrat's regular travel and official schedules. He said the IAS officer reached the office at 10 am and returned by 2 pm. In the second half of the day, another driver (named Tushar) drives Sethi to the office and drops him off at his quarters in the evening.
Satpathy claimed the other driver had availed leave on December 7 which is why he worked in two shifts on that day. "CBI did not inquire anything about Bishnupada Sethi's financial transactions. I am only performing my official duties and have done no wrong," he said. The other driver, Tushar, was also questioned by the CBI earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan said the state government has a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and action will be taken against anyone found to be guilty. “Be it a minister of officer, if anyone’s involvement is found, action will be initiated,” he told mediapersons.
Odia Language Literature and Culture Minister Suryabanshi Suraj said the law will take its own course and nobody was above it.
On December 7, CBI sleuths had caught Mukherjee near a hotel in the Jayadev Vihar area of the city while allegedly taking Rs 10 lakh bribe from the director of a Bhubaneswar-based company M/s Penta A Studio Private Ltd and a middle-man identified as Debadutta Mohapatra.