ED gathers vital evidence in Barapada Engineering College land 'scam' case after grilling BJD MLA's son

Bhandaripokhari MLA and senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Prafulla Samal’s son Prayaskanti Samal came out of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office at around 4:30 am on Wednesday after an 18-hour grilling.

However, when asked about the questioning, Prayaskanti said to reporters that he was not asked anything by the ED and he will very soon meet the reporters again.

As per reports, Prayaskanti deposed before the ED at around 10.30 am on Tuesday. Three teams of the ED were said to have interrogated him.

As per reliable sources, Prayaskanti allegedly tried to hide many vital information about the alleged engineering college land scam and did not cooperate with the probe agency.

It is learnt that the ED officials recorded his statements and came to know that purported information about the land scam had been deleted from his mobile phone. So, three teams including a technical team and two expert teams tried to retrieve the deleted data and are said to have succeeded too.

The sources also claimed that the ED has been able to gather all the evidence against Prayaskanti in the 18-hour interrogation. However, the probe agency is yet to make any comments on this.

Timeline of ED Raids & Questioning

- The officials of the Enforcement Directorate had raided 10 places linked to Samal on February 15 over an alleged land scam involving Barapada Engineering College.

- The legislator had then termed the raids as vindictive.

- The ED had also raided the house of the former principal of Barapada Engineering College.

- On February 16, the ED had seized a high-end car and cash worth Rs 10 lakh from the house of Prayaskanti.

- On February 17, the ED had summoned the father-son duo.

- And, on February 28, senior Samal deposed before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in Bhubaneswar. He was questioned for eight hours.