CBI can now arrest him if needed
The Odisha High Court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail application of senior BJD leader and Banki MlA Pravat Tripathy, who is now being hounded by the CBI for his alleged links with chit fund company Artha Tatwa (AT) Group CMD Pradeep Sethy.
With it, the interim protection granted to Tripathy by the High Court on September 30 was also removed, thereby giving a freehand to the Central investigating agency to take him into custody, if required, for further interrogations.
Reacting to the rejection of his bail plea, Tripathy said he would take further course of action after going through the HC judgment.
Anticipating arrest, after he was quizzed and his houses searched by the CBI, Tripathy had approached the High Court seeking advance bail last month. During the marathon hearing that ended on October 17, the HC had restrained the CBI from arresting him pending disposal of his application.
Pronouncing the verdict that was kept reserved last week, Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo disposed of the petition after rejecting the bail application and withdrew the interim protection granted to him.
Sources said that basing on the materials collected by the CBI, which were placed before the court during the argument and submitted in sealed covers, the court felt that granting anticipatory bail to Tripathy might derail the CBI’s future investigations.
Opposing the anticipatory bail application, the CBI had mainly relied on the statements of principal accused Pradeep Sethy and an independent witness, who had claimed that Tripathy had taken keen interest in registration of the AT Group as a multistate cooperative society.
The CBI had also submitted the voice test report of Tripathy obtained from the Central Forensic Science laboratory matching with that of an audio CD in which telephonic conversations of Tripathy and Sethy were recorded.