The Odisha High Court on Monday extended the interim relief granted to Banki BJD MlA and former Government Chief Whip Pravat Tripathy by a day.
The court would take up hearing on Tripathy’s anticipatory bail plea on Tuesday.
The High Court on September 30 had granted Tripathy interim relief from arrest by the CBI till October 13 on the charges of his complicity with the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group’s fraud in the mega chit fund scam.
The court while granting interim relief to Tripathy had asked the CBI to submit the forensic lab report of the voice test that sought to match his voice in a recorded phone conversation with the voice recorded by the CBI during his interrogation.
Tripathy, whose house was raided in August by the CBI in connection with its probe into the chit fund scam, had moved the High Court on September 15 seeking anticipatory bail, apprehending that the Central agency may arrest him anytime.
A day after Tripathy moved the High Court, he was interrogated for over five hours at the Bhubaneswar CBI office in connection with his alleged links with AT Group chief Pradeep Sethy.
It may be mentioned that the CBI, during simultaneous raids on the houses of Tripathy at Banki and at Kaligali in Cuttack, had seized some important documents apparently confirming his links with the AT Group.
later, the residence of his close associate Subash Padhi at Banki was also raided and his bank accounts scrutinised by CBI officials for possible leads to Tripathy’s financial transactions with the tainted chit fund company.
Ashish Sahu, a member of the State executive committee of the BJD, known to have been very close to some influential BJD MlAs including Tripathy and Ministers, was also interrogated on September 14 for over four hours by the CBI for his alleged links with the AT Group.