Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch will take over four out of 19 cases registered against arrested Bhawanipatna-based blacklisted superclass contractor Banti Agarwal and his family. The rest 15 will be considered as special cases and will be investigated with assistance of the EOW, said sources.
Nuapada SP Parmar Smit Parshottamdas in a press meet today informed that Banti, his father Rajendra Agarwal and wife Sabita Agarwal are accused of providing fake term deposit receipts (TDRs) as security to win government tenders worth Rs 25.36 crore. 19 cases have been registered against them in five districts - Nuapada, Kalahandi, Bolangir, Bargarh and Nabarangpur - out of which 10 are against Banti.
"They will be produced in court subsequently. We brought them on transit remand after producing them before Bhawanipatna court. They will be produced in concerned courts after completion of medical check-up and other formalities. Documentary evidence will be collected during the investigation," said Parshottamdas.
On the other hand, Bolangir police is planning to take Banti on remand for interrogation. According to sources, after the case against the father-son duo came to light, Superintending Engineer, Roads and Building Circle, Bolangir did not take any action. Instead of informing police about the forgery, the engineer wrote a letter asking the accused to deposit the money within seven days.
Such favour by a government official has raised eyebrows following which police is likely to interrogate various government officials in connection with the case.
"How did he prepare the documents, who were helping him, what were his sources and where did he prepare the documents will be investigated," said Additional SP of Bolangir, Sashibhusan Sathpathy.
Preparing fake TDRs is impossible without the help of bank and Works department officials. While Banti is arrested, police is planning to nab the corrupt officials as well, added sources.
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