ED grills BJD MLA for eight hours in engineering college fund irregularities case 

Officials of the Enforcement Directorate interrogated former Odisha Minister and senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA, Prafulla Samal for around eight hours in connection with the alleged financial wrongdoings and mismanagement at Barapada Engineering College in Bhadrak. 

Emerging from the ED office after eight hours of interrogation, Samal told the media that he had been fully cooperating with the ED officials in the investigation. 

“As the ED summoned me, I cannot divulge everything. I have replied to questions posed by the ED,” Samal said.

As per reports, ED had served notice to the legislator and his son Prayaskanti Samal to depose before it on February 28 over allegations of financial mismanagement and irregularities worth Rs 20 crore.

Some employees of the engineering college had been staging protests over the alleged purchase of land and luxury cars with college funds. 

It was earlier alleged that Samal and his son Prayaskanti were involved in a multi-crore scam in the Barapada Engineering College where the father-son duo reportedly swindled crores of rupees collected from students as fees and bought land and flats in Bhubaneswar.

On February 15, the officials of the Enforcement Directorate raided 10 places linked to Samal including six places in Bhadrak town and four places in Bhubaneswar.