Bhubaneswar, April 11: The State BJP has alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was deliberately delaying the investigation to protect a section of influential people.
Briefing media persons here, Mahapatra said that he tends to believe that the notice served to Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Dasburma in the Green Pajero case was save it from embarrassment only.
“The notice given by the CBI to Sanjay Das Verma is only to protect him. The CBI has deliberately orchestrated this farce and the manner in which it is handling the case it now seems that the central investigating agency is the accused,” the senior BJP leader said.
Mohapatra said, the Supreme Court had specifically directed the CBI to probe into the chit fund cases with special emphasis on two aspects — political patronage and money trail.
“Acting on the directive of the apex court, CBI began its investigation o May 9, 2014. But going by the mode of its investigation during two years, it is now clearly evident that it has not investigated the chit fund case seriously as it is trying to protect some people,” he pointed out.
He alleged instead of probing the chit fund case, the CBI accepted the report of the Crime Branch on chit fund scam as true and submitted the report in the court which is a gross violation of the Supreme Court order.
He regretted the fact that the apex court, considering the plight of the people who were duped by these chit fund companies, had asked the CBI to probe into the case to give justice to the victims of fraud.
“But sadly, the CBI, instead of acting on the Supreme Court guidelines, has done its best to protect some people who are involved in the mega scam,” Mahapatra said.
He however, discounted the possibility of either the State government or Centre influencing the CBI to delay the investigation into the scam as the Supreme Court was monitoring the progress.
“May be some people are trying at their personal level. But the CBI officers are responsible for frequent change of officials which has resulted in the inordinate delay in the investigation,” he noted.
The BJP leader also said the CBI had interrogated four IPS officers of Odisha cadre in connection with the chit fund scam. But what was the outcome of the interrogation, he asked.
“The interrogation of these IPS officers was only an eyewash to hoodwink the people and the same has happened in case of BJD minister Sanjay Das Burma. To be frank enough, the CBI is not discharging its duty as per the mandate of the Supreme Court,” he added.
Asked whether the present CBI team of investigating officers (IOs) should be relieved immediately by a new team to expedite the chit fund probe, Mahapatra said the action should be taken against the present IOs who have deliberately delayed the chit fund investigation to safeguard the interest of some influential people.
Talking about Sanjay Das Burma case, he said though there is a provision in the law that a person can submit the documents sought by the IO through his representative, the minister should have come personally on moral grounds as a political leader and people’s representative instead of keeping confined to the statements he and his colleagues are giving to the media.
“Let the BJD leaders who are trying to defend Das Burma through the media, should defend their stand before the CBI if they have the moral courage,” he maintained.
Notably, State Congress has on numerous occasions alleged that the chit fund scam was not properly probed by the CBI due to a ‘tacit understanding between the NDA government at the Centre and BJD government in the State ostensibly to secure the support of the BJD in the Rajya Sabha where the NDA was in a minority”.
