NEW DELHI : The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday raided office and residence of a Mumbai stock broker who had allegedly secured licences for the Saradha group of companies from SEBI and MCX as also the residence of one TV serial producer in the course of the probe into the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam of Odisha.
A CBI spokesperson said 60 locations, including 54 in Bhubaneswar and adjacent areas, came under the agency’s search operations on Saturday and these covered the companies and individuals having the close links with the said group against whom a case has been registered for the alleged chit fund scam on the direction of the Supreme Court.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted by the CBI for the probe since after registering 44 cases in Odisha this year and four cases in West Bengal. The raids conducted included the premises of BJD MLA Pravata Tripathy and the owner of a local newspaper in Odisha.
Besides the residential and office premises of Pravata Tripathy, the CBI officers searched the houses and offices of chairman-cum managing director and other directors of Artha Tatwa Group and their relatives.
Premises of the Secretary of Odisha Cricket Association, Ashirbad Behra, proprietor of local newspaper Bikash Swain and former Congress youth leader Samdit Kuntia were also searched.
While confirming the raids at his premises, Tripathy denied any involvement in the scam. “I don’t have any connection with the chit-fund scam,” he said.
The CBI spokesperson said that his ancestral house in Khurda and two other places including his official residences at Cuttak and Bhubaneswar were being searched by its officers in connection with the chit fund scam.
Tripathy is accused of allegedly taking “protection money” from some of the accused, a charge denied by him.
He claimed he was being targeted as he had attended some of the meetings of chit fund companies when they were operating as co-operative societies.
