Seashore Chit Fund Scam: CBI Summons Two IPS Officers

Bhubaneswar: The CBI has summoned two senior Odisha cadre IPS officers in connection with their alleged complicy in the Seashore chit fund scam.

The central investigating agency has asked the two officials to appear before it at the earliest.

The two IPS officers, whose name has not been disclosed, were grilled by the CBI officials earlier.

The CBI, in course of the investigation, had found the name of these two IPS officers in the diary of Subhankar Nayak, the wheeler-dealer who was arrested in connection with the Seashore chit fund scam.

Notably, the CBI had summoned IAS officer Parag Gupta, retired IAS officer Sangram Keshari Ray, and Seashore Group chief Prashant Das to its Bhubaneswar branch office for interrogation.

While Ray and Das had appeared and were grilled by the CBI officials, Gupta is yet to respond to the notice.

Gupta was the State Tourism secretary when MoUs were signed between the Tourism department and the Seashore Group of Companies to develop tourism at Atri in Khurda district, Nrusinghanath in Bargarh, Harishankar and Ranipur-Jharial in Balangir and a boating club on the banks of the Mahanadi in Cuttack district.

However, the state government later cancelled the MoUs and brought these aforesaid projects under the control of the Tourism department and handed over the related files to the CBI for investigation. Tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda had informed the State Assembly in this regard during the winter session on December 4, 2014.

Since Ray was the General Manager of the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) during the signing of the MoUs, the CBI had also summoned him.