With Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra setting May 5 as the deadline for the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MlAs to join his Odisha Jan Morcha (OJM), BJD president and Chief Minister has sought to upset his onetime mentor Mohapatra's applecart by ensuring the arrest of OJM general secretary Jagneswar Babu in a Vigilance case.
Babu was subjected to the State investigative agency action for his role during the period he was President of the Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB). The case against Babu is he resorted to financial irregularities in sanctioning a loan of Rs 36.18 crore from the OSCB to the Bijayananda Cooperative Sugar Mill in his home district Balangir in 12 instalments from 2009 to 2010.
Babu, who was a BJD general secretary before he chose to join Mohapatra's bandwagon challenging Naveen Patnaik's leadership in the ruling party, is also the president of the cooperative sugar mill. Babu, as the lender at the OSCB has been charged with favouring the sugar mill where he was the borrower by violating rules and NABARD guidelines and misusing the funds given from the OSCB. The other accused in the Vigilance case include OSCB Managing Director Tushar Kanti Panda, CGM lD Acharya and members of the bank's loan committee.
No wonder, Pyarimohan Mohapatra reacted strongly against the Vigilance action against Babu, the virtual number two in the OJM, terming it as a "well-hatched conspiracy" against the OJM. The OJM's successful rallies, the latest one in the series in Kandhamal on April 28, have scared Naveen Patnaik for which the Chief Minister has taken this "retaliatory" action against an important OJM leader, he said.
Mohapatra, who said the Vigilance move against Babu would be challenged legally, warned that Patnaik would have to pay a heavy price for his alleged political design against the OJM.
He pointed out that the then Agriculture and Cooperation Minister Damodar Rout had told the State Assembly no irregularities had taken place in the OSCB during Babu's seven-year-long regime and the NABARD had also not raised any objections. So, how come the Vigilance case was foisted on Babu now, he demanded to know.