Post News Network
Cuttack, Feb 13: The Orissa High Court Friday deferred Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy’s bail plea hearing till February 20 in connection with his alleged links with Artha Tatwa group in chit fund scam in the state.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the chit fund scam in the state had filed a 233-page chargesheet (9/2014) against Tripathy December 15, last year. According to the chargesheet, Tripathy was booked under sections 120-B, 406, 409, 411, 420, 468, 471 of IPC and sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. Tripathy, in the capacity of president of Orissa Cooperative Union from 2008 to 2011, had used his clout over the Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies to register ‘Artha Tatwa Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited’ as a cooperative society at short notice. During his tenure as the president of the union, he was also instrumental in conferring Pradeep Sethy with the Best Youth Cooperator Award instituted by Orissa Cooperative Union without any noteworthy contribution or achievement on the part of the awardee and that too within 15 days of the cooperative society getting registered.
Sethy, the chargesheet said, cashed in on the award to win the confidence of the
investors.