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Bhubaneswar/Cuttack: In a major embarrassment for Naveen Patnaik-led BJD, party MLA Prabhat Biswal from Cuttack-Choudwar was arrested by CBI on Monday night in connection with a fraudulent land deal with Seashore Group, official sources said.
He was nabbed after a brief interrogation at CBI regional office here last night. “He went to the CBI office, Bhubaneswar on Monday evening after receiving a call. The officials questioned him there and arrested him,” his brother Arta Ranjan Biswal said.
“In 2014, CBI had called him for interrogation. Since then he had not been summoned because he is not involved in any controversial matter as he is always busy in public service. I wonder how things changed overnight and he has been implicated falsely,” he added.
Speaking on the monetary transaction with the Seashore Group, he clarified that all financial transactions were made in a transparent manner and documents regarding this were sent to CBI headquarters in Delhi.
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Meanwhile, a team of doctors from Capital Hospital examined his health at the CBI office. “His health condition is not well now as his blood pressure level has gone up. A medicine specialist will be sent to the CBI office for his treatment. More examinations will also be conducted,” Capital Hospital Director Chittaranjan Das said.
His lawyer Anup Senapati said he will soon file a bail petition in court on health grounds. “Prabhat Biswal is not well as he underwent a surgery recently. We will move court soon seeking bail,” Senapati said.
The legislator was earlier quizzed by the Central probe agency in 2014 over the land deal with Seashore Group chief Prashant Dash. His wife Laxmi Bilasini Biswal, also a BJD leader and former zilla parishad president was also grilled on same charges last year.
The CBI sources had earlier revealed that Biswal and his wife embezzled lakhs of rupees from the company by promising to sell their land in Jajpur district. The MLA was also suspected to have availed huge financial benefits from Seashore Group, apparently to allow the company to operate its businesses in Choudwar and Jagatpur industrial area in Cuttack.
Biswal however had denied all the charges.
Sources said, Laxmi Bilasini had entered into an agreement with Seashore Group to sell her 32 gunth land in Benapur Mouja of Jajpur district in 2011. As per the pact, the cost of land was fixed at Rs Rs 29.25 lakh. Company chief Prashant Dash had reportedly paid her Rs 25 lakh through a cheque in April 2012 and agreed to give rest of the amount after registration of land.
Later, Prashant had withdrawn from the agreement and demanded the complete amount. However, she had allegedly refused to pay the money back.
On the other hand, the MLA's wife had refuted the allegations and asserted that she had refunded the money, an agreement of which was also made.
Later, CBI had sent the agreement papers to forensic laboratory for examination to ascertain validity of signatures.
