The Enforcement Directorate (ED) might take Artha Tatwa (AT) Group CMD Pradeep Sethy on remand to interrogate him about money laundering and transactions of money collected from gullible investors of the State. Reliable sources said the ED has started the remand process.
Notably, the Supreme Court had asked the ED to join the CBI in finding the money trail. The ED is already conducting a probe into the chit fund scam. As the chit fund companies have transactions outside the State and country, the neutral agencies like CBI and ED could unearth the truth, the apex court had ruled.
The ED might quiz Sethy about his investments, transactions of the money collected and third parties who aided and abetted him in the work. The agency might ask him whether he had invested the money in the State or outside, added the sources.
Now Sethy is in jail after his remand period with the CBI ended on Saturday. The jail authorities have stepped up his security after getting a direction from the CBI. The authorities didn’t allow AT Group directors Sambit Khuntia, Jyotiprakash Joyprakash and Accountant Srikrusna Padhi to stay with Sethy in the same room from security point of view.
Meanwhile, the CBI interrogation to newspaper owner Bikash Swain and AT Group co-founder Ranjan Das in connection with their involvement with Sethy is on. Sources informed that Sethy had told CBI that he used to give money to politicians to protect his business through Das.
The Central agency while quizzing Swain and Das asked them whether they had political link or not.