The slow progress in the mega chit fund scam probe carried out by the CBI as mandated by a Supreme Court order has led to doubts among duped investors and many activists about the ultimate fate of the investigation. The activists said that investors were eagerly waiting for an early completion of the probe. The investors were initially happy with the CBI’s speedy progress in the investigation, but later the agency has disappointed them for slowing down of the process, the reason of which is better known to it, they remarked.
RTI activist Jayanta Kumar Das said many politicians from the ruling BJD along with Government officials including bureaucrats are under scanner for their alleged roles in the scam. The slow progress of the investigation may be due to impediments and non-cooperation faced by the Central agencies, CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), he added. The CBI probe has only made headway in respects of five chit fund firms out of a total 44 entities within eight months.
The probe agencies are yet to take any remarkable steps to reveal the unholy nexus between the State Government and the Seashore Group. The Government had signed several MoUs with this chit fund firm which should be taken into account, demand activists. Earlier, the CBI had taken effective steps by arresting BJD MP Ramachandra Hansda, former BJD MlA Subarna Naik and former BJP MlA Hitesh Kumar Bagrati for their alleged involvement with the chit fund firm Nava Diganta Company and the agency had also arrested BJD MlA Pravat Tripathy in connection with the Artha Tatwa (AT) scam, but why the probe has later slowed down, ask the activists.
The activists wonder as to what has happened in the case of middleman Sunbhankar Naik, whose diary reportedly made some startling revelations. Naik continues to be in jail now. The CBI is also yet to clarify why it interrogated Saroj Sahu, a confidant of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. “Is the State Government not giving required data asked by the CBI and the ED or any invisible pressure is responsible for thisIJ” questioned activist Das.