Bhubaneswar: Senior IAS officer and principal secretary in the SC/ST welfare and Odisha language department, Bishnupada Sethi, is under CBI scanner in the alleged bribery allegation against Chanchal Kumar Mukherjee, group general manager of PSU Bridge and Roof Co (India) Ltd.
While it is still not clear what exactly the CBI wants to ascertain from the IAS Officer, his lawyer on Sunday said that he would apply for bail for him on Monday. “He is unwell. I have not been able to talk to him since he has been taken to hospital,” lawyer B K Bala told reporters.
He, however, declined to respond to queries on whether he has been arrested.
This came amid reports that Sethi may appear before the CBI on Sunday after skipping the previous summons since he was in Delhi from December 11-13.
Three days after the FIR and the arrest of Mukherjee and two others, the CBI on December 10 sent a notice to the 1995-batch officer to appear before the investigating officer.
In its notice to Sethi, the investigating officer of CBI’s Anti-Corruption-II in New Delhi said: “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 central agency also interrogated three of his drivers on Friday and Saturday in connection with the same case.
One of the drivers, Nrusingha Charan Satpathy, told CBI that he had dropped Sethi at his official quarters at about 7.40 pm on December 7, the day when Mukherjee, contractor Santosh Maharana and super-class contractor Debdatta Mahapatra were apprehended near a plush hotel in the state capital after the bribe money was allegedly exchanged. He also informed that agency that no CCTV cameras are installed outside his government accommodation.
The CBI also quizzed him about the senior bureaucrat’s regular travel and official schedules.
Satpathy started working as Sethi’s official driver two months back after he was assigned ST and SC Development department.
On October 19, 2024, Sethi wrote to the CMD of Bridge & Roof Co regarding assignment of projects for upgrading an Ashram school to High School & a high school to higher secondary school. The two projects are worth Rs 37 crore. However, It’s not clear whether these school upgradation projects have anything to do with the bribery arrests by the CBI.
