Barely 10 days after he resigned, CBI today arrested Odisha's former Advocate General Ashok Mohanty for allegedly abusing his official position and misappropriating funds of Artha Tatwa Group of companies in a case which is an offshoot of Saradha chit fund scam.
After several rounds of questioning by the Special Investigating Unit formed by the CBI, Mohanty was picked up from his residence in Cuttack and informed that he had been placed under arrest.
After mandatory medical check up, the former top law officer of the state was brought to the CBI office on charges of allegedly misappropriating money from the Artha Tatwa, a ponzi company which allegedly duped investors of crores of rupees in the state. "Truth will ultimately come out. God and Guru are my witnesses. As per my conscience, I have not committed any wrong," Mohanty told reporters while being taken inside CBI's state headquarters here.
Mohanty was interrogated by the CBI on September 13, a day after he resigned from the advocate general?s post and had denied allegations that he got a house in Cuttack free of cost from Chairman-cum-Managing Directior of Artha Tatwa (AT) group Pradip Sethy. The plot of Cuttack Development Authority believed to be worth over a crore of rupees was given to Mohanty allegedly without making any payment, the CBI claimed. The charge was, however, denied by Mohanty who said he had paid Rs 1.01 crore through cheques issued against his bank account in SBI.
During the probe, CBI claimed to have found that on October 5, 2012 Sethy sought No Objection Certificate (NOC) to sell his plot further. The NOC was received and within 20 days it was sold to Mohanty allegedly without any payment being made against it, the CBI alleged and claimed that Mohanty helped the group in escaping any action by state authorities. The former advocate genetral also claimed to have shown bank documents to CBI officials in regard to payment.
Meanwhile, a local court here today deferred hearing on the bail application of Manoj Dash, the owner of a private television channel, till September 24. Dash was in judicial custody for his alleged invovement with AT Group.
Dash had allegedly taken Rs 90 lakh from AT Group CMD Pradip Sethi for leasing out bandwidth for operating six television channels in the tele ports owned by him.
On the other hand, Sethi had claimed during interrogation by the CBI that Dash had taken the money as a loan from him and had not returned it.
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