BJD MLA held in chit fund scam

BHUBANESWAR: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator Prabhat Biswal was arrested by the CBI on Tuesday in connection with an allegedly dubious land deal with the kingpin of a ₹500-crore chit fund scam in Odisha, investigating officials said.

The arrest of Biswal, a close confidante of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, could potentially give fresh ammunition to the BJP, which is trying to topple the BJD in the 2019 assembly polls. Officials said Biswal was arrested from his Cuttack residence early Tuesday morning over the land deal with Seashore Group chief Prashant Dash, accused of swindling more than ₹500 crore from people through a pyramid scheme.

The Seashore Group is one of the 44 companies probed by CBI since May 2014 following a Supreme Court order. Several other MLAs and MPs of the ruling party were arrested earlier for their alleged involvement in other chit fund scams in the state.

The CBI arrested Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy in the Artha Tatwa chit fund scam, Mayurbhanj MP Ramachandra Hansdah and former Keonjhar MLA Subarna Naik in the Nava Diganta chit fund scam. Besides them, Balasore MP Rabindra Jena, Dharmasala MLA Pranab Balabantaray, former minister Sanjay Das Burma are under the CBI scanner over their alleged involvement in several chit fund scams.

In November 2014, CBI had interrogated Biswal and his wife, Laxmi Bilasini Biswal, over the land deal. The MLA’s wife, a former zilla parishad president of Cuttack, had sold a plot of land to the Seashore chief for ₹29.25 lakh in 2011. The Seashore chief paid for the land, but a few months later, he withdrew from the land deal and wanted his money back.

CBI sources said the Biswals never repaid the money to Seashore, but claimed to have signed an agreement paper about the re-payment.