The Commissionerate Police on Tuesday has begun the process of interrogating 22 persons, including businessmen, media entrepreneurs, sports administrators and others, for alleged links with the controversial Artha Tatwa (AT) Group. On the first day, eight persons were quizzed by the investigating officer at the Kharavel Nagar Police Station.
The police had summoned all the 22 bigwigs to attend the interrogation process on Tuesday and Wednesday in a phased manner. On the first day of interrogation, the first man interrogated was Odia daily Suryaprabha's owner Bikash Swain.
During questioning, Swain answered that AT Group was connected with his newspaper only for publication of advertisements and clarified that beyond that the paper doesn't have any other dealings with the fraudulent firm. Swain said that the company had paid Rs 65 lakh to his newspaper for publication of advertisements and another Rs 50 lakh payment
was due from the company. "When we asked the AT Group to pay our remaining Rs 50 lakh, the company resorted to blackmailing tactic," Swain told Press persons after the interrogation was over.
Similarly, Krishna Builders managing director Satyabrata Dhir clarified that he has business relation with the AT Group. He said that his company had sold a few apartments and flats to the AT Group's real estate division. Without seller and buyer relation, they don't have any other relation, he added.
Manoj Das, deposing on behalf of his wife and known television entrepreneur lipi Das, told the media that AT Group had paid Rs 90 lakh for a business deal to utilise his company's teleports as it was preparing to launch six TV channels in the State.
"As AT Group concluded the deal and later did not use the facilities, the money could not be returned," said Das, adding, "Due to the company, they lost Rs 3 crore because the teleports could not be used for many days waiting the company's response."
Among others, builder Sanjay Panda, representative of businessman Sagar Ray and Vineet lalani, Ashish Dhal, Manoj Pradhan, Rohit Das, Mohan Sahu and Subrat Mishra had been summoned by the Commissionerate Police. Kharavel Nagar IIC Manoj Kumar Samanta, who is the Investigating Officer of the AT Group fraud case and ACP PK Patnaik interrogated the bigwigs. Three persons were absent during the interrogation, said Bhubaneswar DCP Nitinjit Singh.
Interrogation of others is still continuing. The investigating team would quiz the rest 11 persons on Wednesday. In a recent development, the Commissionerate Police arrested AT Group's another director Haneef Mohammad from the city on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch also on Tuesday sealed a 3,000 sq ft guesthouse worth over Rs 1 crore owned by the Seashore Group at Patrapada in the city. "After verifying the documents, we sealed the guesthouse. Raids on the Seashore Group would be continued on the coming days," said Crime Branch DIG Rajesh Kumar.
On Monday, the EOW officials had sealed the company's 22 acre farmhouse at Barala village near Satyabadi in Puri district. The sleuths had also sealed six offices of the company across the State, besides company CMD Prashant Das' farmhouse worth over Rs 1.5 crore at Angul.