BJD Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy arrested by CBI, suspended from party

BHUBANESWAR: Finally the CBI arrested former Odisha Government chief whip and Banki BJD MLA Pravat Tripathy on Friday for his link with chit fund company Artha Tatwa (AT) Group that duped thousands of investors in the State. 

It was informed by the Chief Information Officer of the CBI Kanchan Prasad in the evening. Prasad said Tripathy was arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy and the allegation that he had received huge sum from the AT Group.

Soon after the CBI arrested Tripathy, the BJD suspended him from the party. After few minutes of the announcement, the party issued a Press release saying BJD president Naveen Patnaik suspended the Banki BJD MLA from the party.

After getting summon, Tripathy reached the CBI office at around 4.30pm and entered the office to be quizzed by the CBI sleuths. He was interrogated about the Best Cooperator prize given to AT Group chief Pradeep Sethy in 2011 and alleged relation with chit fund firm Swastik India founder Ranjan Das, sources said. 

Notably, the CBI on August 16 conducted raids on the houses of Tripathy at Banki and at Kaligali in Cuttack and had seized some important documents about his links with the AT Group. Later the Central Investigating agency had raided houses of his close associate Subash Padhi in Banki in order to get some possible leads to Tripathy’s financial transactions with the tainted chit fund company.

On September 15, Tripathy had moved to the High Court seeking anticipatory bail, apprehending that the CBI may arrest him anytime. On the very next day he was grilled for about six hours in connection with his alleged links with AT Group chief Pradeep Sethy.  

After his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the High Court on October 20, the CBI had summoned the MLA on October 25 and grilled in connection with the CD row.