AT chief, businessmen, bank manager quizzed

CBI Joint Director and Special Investigation Team (SIT) Chief Rajeev Singh, inquiring into the chit fund scam in West Bengal and Odisha, on Saturday reviewed the ongoing investigation process during his one-day visit to the State.

Sources said Singh held discussions on the progress of investigation and also interrogated AT Group chief Pradip Sethy, who along with two directors of his company Jyotiprakash Jaiprakash and Sambit Khuntia and accountant Shrikrushna Padhi is in the CBI custody.

It is reported that Singh interrogated Sethy on his claims that several political leaders, bureaucrats and journalists of the State had taken protection money from his company.

It is further learnt that the investigating agency on Saturday interrogated for hours three businessmen, including Binit lalani, Sagar Ray and Satyabrata Dhir, along with a branch manager of a private sector bank, who is a relative of a sitting BJD MlA. Singh spent the entire day at the CBI office here before leaving for Delhi in the evening.

Sources added that the SIT head also probed the role of the SEBI and the RBI in allowing these fraudulent companies to flourish in gross violation of the existing norms. The CBI has already raided a house of a stock broker in Mumbai, who had allegedly obtained stock trading licence on behalf of the AT Group.

Sources revealed that Sethy and his company's director Khuntia were involved in a brawl and nearly came to blows during the interrogation by the CBI officials on Friday. Both reportedly blamed each other for ruining the company and inviting trouble. The CBI officials had to intervene and separate the two, sources added.

Sethy is believed to have told interrogators that two newspaper owners and a television journalist had taken several lakhs of rupees from him on different occasions towards advertisements. Sethy told interrogators that the two newspaper owners had taken money from him on several occasions by promising him protection from possible action by police, the Crime Branch, the Vigilance and the Income Tax. He is also stated to have taken the name of a few politicians and Ministers who took money from him. Sources said a total of 25 influential persons, including some media house owners, had taken Rs 40 crore from Sethy.