The CBI, probing the mega chit fund scam in Odisha, which allegedly went soft against some tainted Ministers, MlAs and bureaucrats whose names have been doing rounds in connection with the scam, seems to have taken a logical angle with the comeback of Manish Kumar Sinha as the CBI Special Investigation Team (SIT) DIG.
Sinha, who was working as the Bhubaneswar SIT SP, had suddenly been transferred to Patna in April 2015 under suspicious circumstances, raising many eyebrows. Since his departure from Odisha, the CBI probe into the multi-lakh-crore chit fund scam has literally become directionless.
A no-nonsense officer, Sinha during his earlier posting unearthed a series of chit fund scams in the State resulting in the arrest of top political leaders, including the ruling MPs and MlAs like Ramachandra Hansada, Pravat Tripathy (now on bail), former MlA Subarna Nayak, Seashore middleman Subhankar Sarkar and owners of three media houses, Madhu Mohanty, Bikash Swain and Manoj Das. Apart from this, a number of influential persons, including former Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra, Saroj Sahu, aide of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, BJD MlA Pravat Biswal, MP Rabindra Jena and senior IPS officers Satish Gajviya and Rajesh Kumar were grilled during Sinha’s tenure.