BHUBANESWAR: More trouble was in store for
Prashant Dash,
CMD of Seashore Group chit fund firm, as the Dhenkanal district police arrested him on Saturday, a day his release from
Jharpada special jail here.
Dash was out on bail in connection with eight cases, including the one registered by CBI. He was released from judicial custody on Friday evening after cooling his heels for several years following his arrest by
Crime Branch in June 2013.
"We arrested him in an old cheating case of 2014. The case was registered at Dhenkanal Town police station. A court had issued warrant against him," said Dhenkanal SP, Basant Panigrahi.
His family said it was a conspiracy by the police to frame him. "We are shocked by the dramatic development. He was in sleep when we woke up to the shocker. We suspect the timing of his arrest," said his son Pradeep.
Though Orissa high court had granted him bail in August last year in connection with the chit fund case registered against him by the CBI, his release from jail was delayed because of seven other cases against him in different police stations in the state. His family said they were unaware of the Dhenkanal case.
"I have got bail in all the cases. I am ready to return money to my investors and employees. I own assets, whose value is much more than the money I was supposed to pay to people," Dash had told media persons on Friday. The state Crime Branch, which earlier probed Seashore scam, had arrested him on June 19, 2013. CBI took over investigation into Seashore scam as well as frauds by 43 other companies in 2014.
Seashore Group is accused of cheating investors of more than Rs 500 crore. The scam caused maximum embarrassment to BJD as the state government had engaged the firm to execute several projects in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode in the past. BJD MLA Pravat Biswal was arrested in September last year for his alleged links with Dash.
BJD MP Rabindra Jena was already quizzed twice by CBI in connection with the Ponzi scam and had moved the Orissa high court last year, seeking anticipatory bail. BJD suffered a body blow when Naveen Patnaik's personal aide Saroj Sahoo deposed before the CBI officers for interrogation in November 2014 in Seashore case. A number of IPS officers were also quizzed by the CBI in connection with the scam after a key accused Subhankar Nayak spilled the beans.
