The State BJP unit on Wednesday demanded a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam along with conducting polygraph and brain mapping test of the chit fund kingpin Artha Tatwa Group chairman Pradeep Sethi to expose the involvement of influential persons, including Ministers, ruling party MlAs, police, bureaucrats and journalists.
Addressing a Press conference, State BJP chief spokesperson and general secretary Suresh Pujari slammed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is also the Home Minister, for shielding the AT Group chief Sethi to save him, the Government and party men.
Pujari said the scam involved an estimated Rs 20,000 crore with around 20 lakh families being the victims of the unscrupulous and fraudulent financial organizations. Alleging that the root of the fraud is extended up to “N (Naveen) Company”, who is the catalyst of the fraud, the senior BJP leader said that some of his Council of Ministers, MlAs and political activists were hand-in-glove with various chit firms, including AT Group and Sea Shore Group.
Questioning the idea of the Chief Minister in handing over charges to the Crime Branch’s Economic Offence Wing (EOW) to probe all the financial frauds, including the one committed by the Artha Tatwa Group, Pujari alleged that like IPl spot fixing, Chief Minister had committed “case fixing” in a clandestine manner to shield him and his tainted party men and allow Sethi a safe route. He sought to know from Patnaik to clarify as to why the probe into the AT Group’s money laundering was given to the Bhubaneswar Commissionerate Police.
Since the State Government is not accepting the demand for a CBI probe, only SIT probe and the narco test, polygraph and brain mapping can unearth the truth, he said. Accusing the State Government of direct involvement in helping the AT Group to dupe millions of small investors across the State, Pujari said the Cooperation Department had approved a Rs 17 crore cooperative housing project of the AT Group on the same day of the submission of the proposal. To bring his point home, Pujari circulated the application submitted to the Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Bhubaneswar Circle, by the Artha Tatwa Multipurpose Cooperative Society limited on March 15, 2011 and said that on the same day the Assistant Registrar had approved the project for implementation even on the face of the letter. The AT Group had sought the approval of its already introduced high cost deposit scheme to make double of its deposit within a period of two years and seven months up to the extent of Rs 17 crore to deploy the funds in a mega housing project near Odisha Engineering College, he revealed.