The CBI in its 233-page chargesheet filed in the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group case on Thursday last has mentioned that former Advocate General (AG) Asok Mohanty had extended hospitality to AT Group chief Pradeep Sethy after the police lodged an FIR against the latter.
According to the chargesheet, the then AG's hospitality had helped Sethy get anticipatory bail. This point has been taken seriously by the Central investigating agency.
The CBI chargesheet has also mentioned about the controversial house at Bidanasi in Cuttack which was bought by Mohanty from Sethy. The chargesheet states that the AG had paid only Rs 70 lakh instead of the house's original cost of Rs 1,01,00,000.
It has also been mentioned that the CBI had seized two forged money receipts of Rs 1,01,00,000 from the bedroom of Mohanty during its raid in his residence.
The chargesheet also states that Banki BJD MlA Pravat Tripathy received Rs 42 lakh from the AT Group in return for the patronage he extended to it.
Tripathy, who was also President of the Odisha State Cooperative Union from 2008 to 2011, had used his clout over the Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies to register the 'Artha Tatwa Multipurpose Cooperative Society limited' at short notice, the charge sheet says.
During his tenure as the President of the Cooperative Union, Tripathy was also instrumental in conferring Sethy with the Best Youth Cooperator Award instituted by Cooperative Union without any noteworthy contribution or achievement on the part of the awardee and that too within 15 days of the company getting registered, says the chargesheet.
Sethy used the award to gain confidence of the investors and lure them to deposit money in his company. This is evident from the statements of investors that they were encouraged to invest money after seeing the photographs of Sethy receiving the award, the chargesheet says.
A taped conversation between the Sethy and Tripathy, in which the latter had sought favour from the former, was found to be genuine after a test at the CBI's Central Forensic Science laboratory (CFSl) in New Delhi, the chargesheet states.