Bhubaneswar, Jan 14: Just after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids at the Balasore and New Delhi residences of BJD’s Lok Sabha MP Rabindra Jena regarding the Seashore chit fund scam, Jena moved to the Orissa High Court on Friday thus seeking anticipatory bail. He mentioned in his bail plea that the CBI is intentionally causing him trouble as the Panchayat elections are around the corner and he is an elected representative of BJD. Taking the elections into consideration, he should be granted bail.
On Thursday, the CBI officials raided Jena’s New Delhi and Balasore residences as he did not appear before the central probe agency in person,although the CBI had sent him a notice on Jan 9, asking him to appear before it in connection with the scam. Earlier, the CBI had earlier grilled Jena on Jan 13, 2015, and Dec 10, 2016. At the time of the earlier quizzing, the CBI wanted to know from Jena about the financial transactions that took place between his company ‘Supriti’ and the Seashore group as the allegation is that ‘Supriti’ had taken Rs 18 crore in loan from Seashore. Although Jena had already answered the CBI that he had repaid the loan, the agency still being dissatisfied, wants to interrogate him again. The notice sent to Jena by the CBI created a tension and anger in the BJD party as some of its leaders are already behind bars in connection with ponzi scams. Those leaders are BJD’s Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy and Mayurbhanj MP Ram Chandra Hansdah who had been arrested earlier in a similar chit fund scam. While Tripathy is out on bail, Hansdah has been in Jharpada jail since Nov 2014.
