CBI gets 5-day remand of BJD MLA Pravat Biswal

Bhubaneswar: The Special CBI Court here on Tuesday allowed CBI to take BJD MLA Pravat Ranajn Biswal on five-day. He was arrested earlier in the day in connection with a land fraud involving Ponzi firm Seashore Group of Companies.

Hours after the arrest of the Choudwar-Cuttack MLA, his supporters resorted to mass protest and staged a blocked in front of the CBI office here. BJD youth wing activists also took out a bike rally from Cuttack to the state capital in support of the legislator. They cried political vendetta behind his arrest.

Biswal, while coming out of the court in the evening, termed CBI’s action as a ‘political conspiracy’.

Meanwhile, the regional party stood firmly behind its MLA and also threatened to take the fight to the streets.

Addressing a joint media conference, two senior ministers, Maheswar Mohanty and Sashibhusan Behera, and Rajya Sabha members Prasanna Acharya and Pratap Keshari Deb, accused the BJP of misusing the central investigating agency to settle political scores.

The BJD leaders said, unlike in 2014 when Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy and Mayurbhanj MP Ramachandra Hansdah were suspended after they were arrested by the CBI in connection with the chit fund scam, the party will wait to ascertain the allegations against Biswal in the court of law before taking any action.

The had been under CBI scanner in connection with a land deal at Benapur Mouza in Jajpur. Investigation also revealed that Choudwar-Cuttack MLA had allegedly received huge amount in the account of his wife from the CMD of the Ponzi firm based in Odisha for its smooth functioning in and around Cuttack.