Cuttack: Senior IAS officer Bishnupada Sethi faced a setback on Friday as the Orissa High Court dismissed his petition, seeking protection from coercive action by the CBI.
Sethi had challenged the raid by the central agency at his Bhubaneswar residence in the Rs 10 lakh bribery case involving the Bridge and Roof Company (India) Ltd, a PSU. The court, however, lifted the interim protection initially granted to him and his wife and daughter.
On February 18, a CBI team conducted searches at his official residence in Bhubaneswar after his name came up during the interrogation of an arrested PSU official. Sethi, along with his wife and daughter, filed a petition on February 24 seeking the HC’s intervention, alleging mental harassment by CBI officers.
The IAS officer claimed that the CBI team had not got any offensive or vital documents while conducting the raid. However, his wife’s bank account was frozen and his daughter’s laptop, which she used for her studies, was seized.
The Case
On December 10, 2024, the CBI summoned the senior IAS officer in an alleged bribery case involving a high-ranking official of the Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited.
“It is learnt that you are acquainted with some important and relevant facts as well as the circumstances of this case and these required to be ascertained from you,” the notice issued by the investigating officer of CBI Anti-Corruption-II in New Delhi said.
This came three days after group general manager of the central PSU, Chanchal Mukherjee, was apprehended by CBI sleuths near a hotel in the Jayadev Vihar area of the city while allegedly taking Rs 10 lakh bribe from the director of a Bhubaneswar-based Penta A Studio Private Ltd and a middle-man identified as Debadutta Mohapatra.
The CBI also interrogated Sethi’s three drivers in connection with the case.
Following the summon, the 1995-batch officer was shunted out of three departments he was heading. Sethi, who was in-charge of social security and empowerment of persons with disabilities department, ST&SC development department, and Odisha language department, was posted as officer on Special Duty (OSD) of the general administration and public grievance department, a seemingly insignificant posting.
Two months later, a handwritten resignation letter to Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja surfaced on social media in which Sethi attributed his decision to denial of promotion. The purported letter mentioned that his batchmate Hemant Sharma was recently promoted to the rank of additional chief secretary in the state government, while he was overlooked. This came hours before a CBI team raided his residence here.
However, there has been no confirmation on it yet.
