Odisha chit fund scam: BJD MLA's bail plea rejected, sent to jail

Separate courts in Bhubaneswar today rejected the bail petitions of suspended Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Pravat Tripathy.

Tripathy was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's special court after completion of his 13-day remand in the CBI custody.

He had applied for the bail on health ground and for the Assembly session commencing from November 20.

Judge P.L. Satpathy, however, rejected the bail plea and sent Tripathy to jail till November 26.

Meanwhile, Mumbai-based model and television serial producer Preeti Bhatia was also arrested for her alleged links in the scam, after the Khordha district and sessions court rejected her bail plea.

Bhatia's bail plea was earlier rejected by the special CBI court, after which she had moved to the district and sessions court challenging the order of the special court.

Bail petitions of businessmen Vinith Kumar Lalani and Dilip Kumar Mohanty were also rejected by the special court and they were remanded to judicial custody. The two had earlier been in the CBI custody.

Tripathy, Lalani, Mohanty and Bhatia were arrested by CBI for their alleged links with Artha Tatwa Group, which is one of the major players in the multi-crore scam.

Besides these four, 22 others including Mayurbhanj MP Ramchandra Hansda, former MLAs Subarna Naik and Hitesh Bagarti and Artha Tatwa Group CMD Pradip Sethy were also produced before the court, as their bail petitions were also rejected.