A day before the Supreme Court hears the prayers of senior advocate Shyam Divan, the Amicus Curiae in the multi crore chit fund scam, seeking court monitoring of the probe, the Orissa government on Thursday asked the director general of police to provide all necessary logistical support and documents to CBI's local office and ED's sub-zonal office in Bhubaneswar. On November 5, Divan had filed a a 10-page application before the SC Bench headed Justice T S Thakur & Justice R Vanumati, complaining that the Orissa government was not at all cooperating in the court directed CBI and ED investigation and wanted the apex court to monitor the tardy probe. In his prayer, Divan had stated that Orissa giving any document to Enforcement Directorate even after several reminders from the agency as well as a letter from from vice chairman of SIT on black money, Justice Arjit Pasayat. Divan also mentioned that the CBI SIT on chit fund in Bhubaneswar is facing acute shortage of manpower and was finding it difficult to probe all the 44 chit fund companies. The SC bench fixed the hearing to November 14. With the prospect of SC coming down heavily on the Orissa government, the home department today asked the DGP to provide all logistical support to ED and CBI on an urgent basis. Two days ago, the home department had directed the DGP and other government departments to immediately provide sweepers, furnitures and 3-phase electric lines to the local CBI office. On Wednesday, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation too handed over several important documents related to Seashore group. The ED which is looking into the instances of money laundering by some of the chit fund companies including Artha Tatwa and Seashore, in September had complained to the Orissa chief secretary about Bhubaneswar police commissionerate not handing over the documents relating to Artha Tatwa chit fund group. Divan complained that CBI had only one SP, one Dy SP & three inspectors to probe all the chit fund companies. CBI had asked the state government to depute 10 inspectors, 20 constables and 8 vehicles for SIT, but got only one inspector and two vehicles. Meanwhile, a special CBI court in Bhubaneswar on Thursday sent former BJD MLA Pravat Tripathy, Mumbai-based model Preeti Bhatia, builder Vineet Lalani and former state Congress secretary Dilip Mohanty to judicial custody till November 26 after their bail applications were rejected. Tripathy was arrested by the CBI on October 31, on charges of hatching a criminal conspiracy wth chit fund group Artha Tatwa and allegation that he had received huge sum from the group. After the end of his 13-day remand by CBI, he was produced before the special CBI court this morning. Preeti Bhatia was arrested by CBI on October 10 over her alleged links with chit fund group Artha Tatwa and its chief Pradeep Sethy. Money from Artha Tatwa were allegedly transferred to her company bank account, personal account and relatives' accounts without any valid reason. Preeti and Pradeep Sethy along with one Indu Dewan were directors of a Mumbai-based company called Prism Heights Films & Entertainment Private Limited. During interrogation, she failed to explain why she took Rs 4 crore from Artha Tatwa Group. A total of 26 accused persons were produced in the two special CBI courts on Thursday.
