After knocking at the doors of several courts for over five months seeking anticipatory bail and regular bail, the beleaguered Banki BJD MlA Pravat Kumar Tripathy was granted conditional bail by the Odisha High Court on Tuesday. Tripathy was arrested by the CBI on October 31 last for his alleged links with chit fund company Artha Tatwa (AT) Group and with its CMD Pradeep Sethy.
Soon after the bail was granted, Tripathy’s supporters at Banki erupted in celebrations bursting crackers and distributing sweets. Tripathy was suspended from the party immediately after his arrest. Justice Raghivir Dash, who had reserved his order in the case, pronounced the verdict allowing Tripathy to go on bail after depositing an amount of Rs10 lakh in any nationalised bank and furnishing a property surety having solvency of Rs10 lakh.
Tripathy was been asked by the court to cooperate with the investigating officer during the interim bail period and shall not influence the witnesses or tamper with the evidences. Although, the court asked Tripathy to surrender his passport with the CBI, the same is already with the CBI, informed his counsel HK Mund.
In its preliminary chargesheet, the CBI has accused Tripathy of taking Rs 42 lakh from the AT Group chief Sethy. He had allegedly taken the money while he was President of Odisha State Cooperative Union to extend patronage to Sethy.