CBI summons Odisha IAS officer in chit fund scam

BHUBANESWAR: The Central Bureau of Investigation has asked a senior IAS officer of Odisha cadre as well as a retired IAS officer to appear before it over their alleged involvement in the ₹578 crore Seashore chit fund scam.

CBI sources said notices have been served to IAS officer Parag Gupta, on central deputation as joint secretary in ministry of food processing industries to appear before the agency on July 2. Gupta was the secretary of Odisha tourism department when the state government had signed MOU with chit fund group Seashore for a water sports complex in Cuttack and for managing government guest house in Khurda town.

The agency has also summoned retired IAS officer Sangram Ray, who was then working as the general manager of Odisha Tourism Development Corporation when the MOU was signed.

Seashore, which is one of the 44 companies probed by CBI since May 2014 following a Supreme Court order in May 2014, raised around ₹578 crore from people without listing itself in the stock exchange which is mandatory if the number of shareholders cross 50. It also registered some of its firms under the Odisha Self Help Cooperative Societies Act that allowed it to remain out of the government’s checks and balances.

The group started in 2008 by Prashant Dash, 50-year-old former economics lecturer offered 36 % interest per annum to the investors, which was nearly four times the rates offered by nationalised banks.

The CBI has already chargesheeted 8 persons, including BJD MLA Prabhat Biswal and his wife in Seashore scam. Biswal, who was arrested in September last year, recently received bail from Odisha High Court. This is not the first time the CBI would interrogate all India service officers in the chit fund scam that robbed over a million people of their hard-earned money. In December 2014, it had questioned senior IPS officers of Odisha cadre, Rajesh Kumar and Satish Gajbhiye over their alleged links with the scam.