Artha Tatwa Chit Fund case: ED raids several places including a newspaper office in Bhubaneswar

After a brief halt in its probe of large-scale financial irregularities in chit fund, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) again raided several places in Odisha connected to Artha Tatwa chit fund on Thursday.

As per reports, the raids were made at three places in Bhubaneswar including at the office of a newspaper and at Berhampur and Chhatrapur.

It is pertinent to mention here that the CBI and ED were investigating 44 chit fund organisations in several parts of the country, mainly in Odisha and West Bengal. Artha Tatwa was one of them. The ED had earlier raided several places in connection with Artha Tatwa chit fund too and attached property worth more than Rs 133 crore.

Now the ED has again opened the AT chit fund file after getting information on involvement of other persons in this case.

On the other hand, the officials of the Enforcement Directorate had raided 10 places linked to Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Prafulla Samal and his son Prayaskanti Samal on February 15 over an alleged land scam involving Barapada Engineering College.

While Prafulla Samal deposed before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in Bhubaneswar on February 28, his son Prayaskanti appeared before the ED for questioning on March 5.