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Bhubaneswar: A day after ruling BJD clarified that the party had sent Rs 45 lakh to senior party leaders for poll expenses in 2014, Opposition BJP and Congress on Saturday demanded that an impartial probe must be conducted into the whole affair, as the money was transferred to the bank account on the day of polls.
While the BJP said that BJD bought time to hide the truth, the Congress said the matter should be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“Now the people of Odisha will believe that in which way the ruling party is involved in corruption. The then DGP Prakash Mishra had also established such type of corruptions in the party. Hence we demand that the issue raised by former Union minister Braja Kishore Tripathy must be investigated by the CBI,” former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Jayadev Jena said.
The saffron party also echoed the voice of State Congress.
“By not clarifying details of the particular bank account which was presented by Tripathy, the ruling party has only invited criticism for itself. It should be probed impartially,” BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said.
Yesterday in a press conference jointly addressed by Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Industries, School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra and party spokesperson Sameer Dash, the leaders had claimed that the money was transferred to eight leader’s account for election expenditure.
“Yes, money was transferred to eight BJD leader’s accounts through a cheque and not to Sabyasachi Panda’s account. The funds were transferred before the election for poll expenditure purpose,” Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said.
On April 10 last year, Rs 45 lakh was transferred through a cheque (No 441630) in Real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS) mode from BJD’s account number 10091755246 in the State Bank of India’s Bhubaneswar Rajpath branch, they said.
However Tripathy, a former parliamentarian from Puri, had claimed the ruling party had credited Rs 45 lakh to bank account of Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda.
“The amount has been transferred through bank cheque (no 44 1630) from BJD A/C no 10091755246 to Sabyasachi Panda’s ICICI bank A/C no 203601501728,” Tripathy said.
