Orissa HC reserves judgement on BJD MLA's bail application

Orissa High Court today reserved its verdict on the anticipatory bail application of senior BJD leader and MLA Pravat Tripathy, whose house was raided in connection with his alleged links to a ponzi scheme company's chairman and managing director.
The single-judge bench of Justice D Dash after hearing the counsel of CBI and Tripathy for at least four sittings reserved the judgment.
Tripathy had approached the HC seeking anticipatory bail after he was interrogated and his houses were raided by CBI earlier this month in connection with his alleged link with a ponzi scheme company's chairman and managing director, who is already in the investigative agency's custody.

The CBI counsel opposed Tripathy's application and said that granting anticipatory bail at this stage would hamper its further investigation.
The CBI also told the court that an audio CD of telephonic conversation between Tripathy and Artha Tatwa group CMD Pradeep Sethy is available with it in which the former is urging the latter to help him organise a local cultural festival.
Contesting CBI's contentions, Tripathy's counsel Pitambar Acharya told the court that the investigating agency has not been able to produce any conclusive evidence to establish any link between him and the ponzi scheme CMD.

"The so-called audio CD in possession of CBI lacks evidentiary validity and is not enough to warrant an arrest of Tripathy, who is a responsible people's representative," Acharya argued citing certain Supreme Court judgment in support of his argument.

CBI sleuths had raided Tripathy's houses at Banki and in the city. They had also raided the house of one of Tripathy's supporters in Banki and seized certain documents from a local cooperative bank.
Fire broke out in the same bank premises at Banki today destroying several computers and documents. Reports reaching here said the cause of fire is stated to be electric short circuit and bank authorities have ordered an inquiry into it.