Politicians, babus jittery over CBI final charge sheet in Seashore case

Bhubaneswar: With the CBI indicating that it is going to file the final charge sheet in the Seashore case in the next 3-4 days, several political leaders - many of them belonging to the ruling party - and their associates are spending sleepless nights wondering if their names would figure in it.

Talk of the complicity of some leading lights of the ruling party with the chit fund company had reached fever pitch in 2014 after the CBI interrogated former BJD heavyweight Pyarimohan Mohapatra and Saroj Sahu, former BJD office secretary and political programme coordinator to the chief minister at Naveen Niwas.

Opposition parties had also alleged that BJD MLA Pravat Biswal had links with the Seashore Group chief.

A host of MoUs signed between Seashore and the state government in fields as varied as maize processing and healthcare had fuelled speculation about the Ponzi firm's links with some powerful BJD leaders.

Much to the embarrassment of the ruling BJD, the CBI had also found the names of several senior police officers and even an IAS officer in the diary of middleman Subhankar Nayak as recipients of bribe money from the company.

It now remains to be seen whether the CBI has mentioned the name of these political leaders and the police officers in its charge sheet.