BJP team meets IT commissioner seeking probe into BJD's poll funds 

Bhubaneswar: A five-member team of Odisha BJP today moved the Income Tax Commissioner seeking a thorough inquiry into the alleged discrepancies in the data of ruling BJD’s election expenditure.

"Crores of rupees from in and outside the State have come to BJD account from unknown sources. The money mostly came from chit fund companies. We urged the Income Tax commissioner to take the matter to Central Board of Director (Tax)," BJP vice-president Sameer Mohanty said.

The saffron party's move came a day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rubbished such allegations as “malicious, fabricated and false” and said legal steps may be taken in the matter if necessary.

“The allegations are malicious, fabricated and false. If necessary, we will take legal action,” Patnaik told reporters yesterday. To a question on whether the allegation was part of a conspiracy, he said it appears to be like that.

On the other hand BJD countered the saffron and Congress party by charging them with similar allegation.

"About Rs 5,000 crore has been transferred to BJP and Congress bank accounts from different unknown sources in last ten years. All transactions of BJD were made in a transparent manner through banks. The charge brought by the BJP is just a political vendetta," BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Deb said.

“The SBI statement clearly showed that the cheques of MP Ramachandra Hansda and CM Naveen Patnaik are different. The BJP and its spokesperson who moved media with false information, will be served legal notice. The channel which telecast the news on fake data will also face legal action as it tried to malign the CM’s image,” Deb added.

The alleged irregularities came to fore after a report regarding the poll expenditure of BJD was telecast on a national news channel.