CBI court turns down bail plea of 16 chit fund accused

The designated CBI court today rejected the bail petitions of 16 chit fund accused, including Artha Tatwa Group CMD Pradip Sethy and suspended BJD MLA Pravat Tripathy.

Judge Padma Lochan Satpathy posted the case for hearing on January 12, next year.

The 16 accused included Mumbai-based model Preeti Bhatia, newspaper owners Madhu Mohanty and Bikash Swain and builder Sagar Ray.

The accused were sent back to jail custody.

CBI had arrested them during its probe into the multi-crore mega chit fund scam in Odisha.