SC to hear plea challenging Odisha MLA Pravat Tripathy's bail

Admin   |   26 February, 2016   |   1342   |   3980

Cuttack: The CBI’s plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to Pravat Tripathy, the BJD MLA from Banki in Odisha’s Cuttack district has been scheduled for hearing in the Supreme Court of India (SC) on March 4, revealed court sources.

The Supreme Court on December 24 last year had slapped a notice to Tripathy on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the CBI challenging the bail granted to him by the Orissa High Court in the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group chit fund scam.

The apex court while admitting the SLP filed by the CBI seeking cancellation of the bail granted to the Banki legislator by the Orissa High Court on March 3 last year had served a notice to Tripathy in the matter.

Tripathy had walked out of the Jharpada jail in Bhubaneswar on March 4 to a tumultuous welcome by his supporters after more than four months of incarceration in connection with the AT Group chit fund scam in the state.

The Banki MLA, arrested by the CBI on October 31 in 2014 for his role in the Artha Tatwa (AT) case, had been granted conditional bail by the Odisha High Court on March 3 in 2015. He had earlier been denied anticipatory bail by the High Court and regular bail by the CBI and district courts in Bhubaneswar.

The court had granted him conditional bail on a bail bond of Rs 10 lakh and asked him to surrender his passport.

In its order granting bail to Tripathy, the court had asked him to cooperate with the CBI in its investigation. It had also said it had taken note of the forensic report on his taped conversation with Artha Tatwa (AT) group chief Pradeep Sethy.

The CBI in its charge sheet in the Artha Tatwa (AT) group case had accused four-time Banki MLA and former president of the Odisha State Cooperative Union, with receiving Rs 42 lakh from the tainted company in return for the patronage extended to it.

Tripathy, in the capacity of president of Odisha State Cooperative Union from 2008 to 2011, had used his clout over the Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies to register the cooperative society ‘Artha Tatwa Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited’ at short notice, the charge sheet had said.

This apart, Tripathy, whose name figures neither in the list of directors nor in the list of employees, had asked Sethy to finance Banki Mahotsav, a local festival.