The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police Crime Branch on Monday conducted a raid on the office of Daily newspaper, Sambad over loan fraud allegations. Three joint teams comprising 12 officials of EOW, and Commissionerate Police are conducting the raids at the Sambad office in Rasulgarh area of Bhubaneswar.
Earlier, a former employee of the newspaper had levelled loan fraud allegations against Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the Editor of the Odia Daily and the Human Resources (HR) head of the media house, Baijayanti Kar. The complainant had alleged that the officials of the media house took a loan in his name without his knowledge.
As per the complaint, Rs 5 lakh loan was taken by creating a fake account in the name of the employee. The complainant has also alleged that many employees like him have been victims of such fraud in the media house.
On Sunday, the EOW officials quizzed the publisher of the media group, Kamalakant Mohapatra. However, Mohapatra refused to comment on the matter.
As per sources, the EOW had earlier served a notice to the Human Resources (HR) head of the media house, Baijayanti Kar. However, today EOW reached the office of Sambad after the HR head allegedly did not respond to the notice.
Editor, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik’s daughter Tanaya Patnaik took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “The Odisha government is trying its best to silence us. Everything that has happened and that will happen in the future has probably never happened before in the history of Odisha.”
Tanaya Patnaik further said in her post, “The addition for revenge has gone to such a personal and low level that if something happens to my family and relatives, I will be saddened and not surprised at all.”
In her X post, Tanaya further wrote, “The entire administration is after us, just to protect a secretary. It seems that we have asked the right questions, otherwise, what is the purpose of such revenge?” Meanwhile, the Odisha government or the ruling BJD could not be contacted over such allegations.