Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems to be caught in a dilemma as to whom to induct as Ministers in his new team in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent order for a CBI inquiry into the mega chit fund scam.
The apex court’s judgement has sent a chill down the spine among some of Patnaik’s cohorts. Interestingly enough, those BJD leaders who used to indulge in revelry, merrymaking and auctioning of Ministerial berths over a Pakhal (watered rice) dinner a few days ago are now scared of being nabbed by the CBI.
These tainted leaders include some prominent incumbent Cabinet Ministers, a Minister of State with independent charge, a former Minister posing as number two in the ruling party and at least four sitting MlAs known to be close to Patnaik. These leaders allegedly had clandestine deals with the owners of the Artha Tatwa Group, Astha and Seashore companies, which are to be probed by the CBI.
BJP leader Pratap Sarangi had levelled charges against these leaders in the State Assembly that they amassed crores of rupees from the owners of the chit fund companies to provide them protection in carrying out their fraudulent operations.
Sarangi openly alleged in the Assembly that former Minister Kalpataru Das (now elected to Rajya Sabha) had grabbed from the chit fund firms Rs 15 crore followed by Minister Dr Damodar Rout Rs 7 crore, Government Chief Whip Pravat Tripathy Rs 7 crore, Minister of State Arun Sahoo Rs 5 crore, Minister Surjya Narayan Patro Rs 5 crore and Deputy Government Chief Whip Sanjay Das Burma Rs 4 crore.Besides, the association of the owners of the fraud companies with some of these leaders seems to be abundantly clear from their photographs taken at various public meetings and reported in various media from time-to-time. The pictures showed these political leaders congratulating the owners of the chit fund firms with bouquets.
Even the owners of the companies have donated to some of the leaders costly cars like Mahindra XUV, land Cruiser, Pajero, etc, besides presenting them with plots of land and huge money during the 2007 panchayat elections, 2009 Assembly elections and 2012 panchayat polls.
The State police have reportedly acted as a silent witness to this unprecedented loot and even destroyed evidences against the political leaders. In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the police had stated being unable to find any incriminating evidences against these leaders, but the judges did not swallow the pills offered by the State Government and pronounced their judgement in favour of a CBI inquiry into the scam involving a whopping 25 lakh poor people.
Political observers believe that while coming to cross the bridge during Ministry formation, Naveen Patnaik would undoubtedly dump the tainted sheep from his council in order to defend his hitherto-maintained clean image.