Speculations galore as MlA seeks bail in chit fund case

While Banki BJD MlA Pravat Tripathy has not been able to obtain anticipatory bail from the High Court for nearly a fortnight now to evade arrest by the CBI, a major fire in a cooperative bank at Banki on Monday raised many questions as the same bank was raided by the CBI on September 15.

During the time when the hearing on Tripathy's anticipatory bail was concluding in the High Court, news reached here that a fire had broken out in the Central Cooperative Bank of Banki in Cuttack district.

And it is the same bank where the Banki Festival account is maintained and there are audio CDs available with the CBI in which Tripathy is purported to be heard speaking to AT Group CMD Pradeep Sethy and urging him to look after the local festival.

Tripathy is the president of the Banki Festival and one of his confidants Subash Padhy is its general secretary. With the permission of Tripathy, the secretary and the treasurer of the festival are allowed to operate the festival's account in the cooperative bank. After raiding the houses of Tripathy and Padhy, the CBI had also raided the bank and apparently collected several incriminating documents from it.

But in Monday's fire, many computers of the bank were stated to be gutted and it was not immediately known whether the inferno destroyed any relevant materials pertaining to the transactions in the Banki Festival account. Bank Manger Hemant Naik told local reporters that the fire might have been caused due to an electric short circuit. But an inquiry has been ordered to ascertain whether the fire was accidental or man-made, sources said.

legal experts here are of the opinion that the fire at the bank is likely to have its consequence on the verdict of the MlA's bail, which was kept reserved after conclusion of the hearing.