ED tightens grip on Odisha BJD MLA Prafulla Samal, seizes Rs 10L, high-end car from son's house

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized a high-end car and cash worth Rs 10 lakh from the house of former Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Prafulla Samal’s son Prayaskanti Samal on Friday.

The car and cash were seized from Prayaskanti’s home at Palashpalli in Bhubaneswar.

The central probe agency conducted simultaneous raids at 10 places linked to Bhandaripokhari MLA Prafulla Samal -- six places in Bhadrak town and four places in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.

It is suspected that the raids were made in connection with alleged financial irregularities at Barapada Engineering College in Bhadrak. It is pertinent to mention here that there had been prior protests in Bhadrak over the same issue of financial irregularities in the college.

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It has been alleged that the Minister and his son Prayaskanti Samal are involved in a multi-crore scam involving Barapada Engineering College where the father-son duo has allegedly swindled crores of rupees collected from students as fee to buy lands and flats in Bhubaneswar and other places.

After the raids, the former Minister said that such action was nothing but vindictive.

His lawyer had earlier said, "The raids are a conspiracy against my client. We are trying to contact the ED officials but they are neither seeing us nor commenting anything. Prafulla Samal has many diseases and needs continuous treatment. The ED officials are harassing him."

The ED also conducted raids on the house of the former principal of Barapada Engineering College.