Odisha MLA sent to jail in ponzi scam

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Nov 13: Senior legislator from Banki Pravat Tripathy, one of the accused in the mega chit fund scam in Odisha, was remanded to judicial custody by a local court on Thursday.Tripathy was suspended from the ruling Biju Janata Dal headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik hours after he was arrested by the CBI for his alleged links with the city-based chit fund firm Artha Tatwa Group on October 31.Tripathy was arrested after the CBI sleuths raided his houses at Banki and Cuttack city.The court remanded Tripathy to judicial custody till November 26 while denying him bail.Tripathy was produced before the court on the expiry of his 13-day-long CBI remand.The senior leader was taken to the Jharpada jail in the city along with other accused persons in the cases relating to the mega scam who were also produced in the court.Earlier, a court also rejected the bail plea of Mumbai-based model and television serial producer Preeti Bhatia.She is already in judicial custody following her arrest in the scam.As many as 22 others, including Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha Member and suspended BJD leader Ramachandra Hansdah, former BJD MLA Subarna Naik and former BJP legislator Hitesh Bagarti and Artha Tatwa Group head Pradeep Sethy were also produced before the court.All the accused who had also sought bail were denied the same and sent to jail.Hansdah, Nayak and Bagarti have been arrested by the CBI for their alleged links with Naba Diganta Capital Services Limited.