Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 24: Central Bureau of Investigation Saturday arrested Seashore Group of companies director Pravat Kumar Dash in connection with its probe into multi-crore chit fund scam.
Sources in the CBI said, Dash was director in all the 15 companies of the group including Seashore Securities Limited, which collected deposits from gullible investors. Pravat, incidentally, is the brother of Seashore chief managing director Prasant Dash.
The investigating agency has registered 44 FIRs in connection with chit fund scam on the orders of Supreme Court last year.
A special CBI court allowed the Central agency to take Pravat on a seven-day remand for further interrogation following a request by its counsel Kali Charan Mishra. He has been charged with criminal conspiracy and financial misappropriation.
Sources said Pravat arrived at the CBI office in the morning and was questioned for an hour before being apprehended.
The sources added the CBI arrested him for allegedly embezzling funds to the tune of Rs 3 crore.
“The money was transferred to Pravat’s account and the funds were misappropriated by him,” according to CBI sources.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the agency under joint director Rajiv Singh is probing the scam which is an off-shoot of Saradha ponzi scam.
However, Pravat denied any wrongdoing on his part. “I am not involved in the misappropriation,’’ he told the media outside the CBI office here.
Pravat’s lawyer Bijay Kumar Kar also claimed his client was not involved in any fraudulent activities.
“The investigating officer said Pravat was arrested in a fresh case. Some funds were transferred to his account in connection with a land deal at Angul,’’ Kar added.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Prashant June 19, 2013 from Mumbai for various cheating cases across the state.
