The CBI on Monday arrested former Advocate-General of Odisha Ashok Mohanty for alleged misuse of his official position and misappropriation of funds of Artha Tatwa Group of companies embroiled in the inter-State Saradha chit fund scam.
The arrest comes after several rounds of questioning of Mohanty by the Special Investigation Team of the CBI. He was arrested from his Cuttack house and taken to the agency’s Bhubaneswar office. Earlier, Mohanty was interrogated by the agency on September 13, a day after he resigned. During questioning, he had denied allegations that he was given a house on a freehold plot in Cuttack free-of-cost by CMD of Artha Group Pradip Sethy. The probe has pointed out that the plot of Cuttack Development Authority, estimated to be over `1 crore, was given to Mohanty without making any payment .
Sethy had sought a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Authority on October 5, 2012 to sell his plot. Sethy received the permission and sold the plot within three weeks to Mohanty who allegedly helped the Artha Tatwa Group with favorable legal opinion against the group companies that are believed to have duped thousands of investors to the tune of crores of rupees.
CBI sources said Mohanty did not cooperate during the investigation and denied the allegations leveled against him. The arrest will facilitate the sleuths with his custodial interrogation and may help in further unraveling his dealings with the group.
The Artha Tatwa Group is an accused company in one of the 44 cases registered by the agency in Odisha and all the top-rung functionaries have already been arrested by the CBI.