Are tainted Odisha ministers now on the radar of the Enforcement Directorate? After Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar, seems Odisha is next in the list of the probe agency. The recent raids made in connection with alleged financial irregularities at Barapada Engineering College in Bhadrak and the subsequent summons to former Odisha minister Prafulla Samal and his son have triggered such apprehensions. The Enforcement Directorate seized a high-end car and Rs 10 lakh from the house of former Minister and Biju Janata Dal leader Prafulla Samal’s son Prayaskanti Samal in Bhubaneswar.
It is pertinent to mention that the ED is currently active in the country and conducting series of raids to nab corrupt ministers. Three senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi are now in jail; their Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been asked to appear before the court after skipping summons. Everyone knows what happened with former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren after he was found involved in corruption.
Coming back to Odisha, the ED raids ahead of the crucial general elections has heated up the political atmosphere. The major question now is after Prafulla Samal, who’s next? Will the ED take action against other tainted leaders in Odisha?
In August 2023, the ED had filed a second supplementary prosecution complaint against BJD’s former MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal and his wife in connection with the multi-crore chit fund scam. CBI court later framed charges against both of them. Before that, the ED had already attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs. 3.92 crore of Biswal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Similarly, another BJD MLA Sudhanshu Sekhar Parida was accused of swindling crores of rupees in the name of subsidy procurement equipments from farmers. Later, he was expelled from the party. Allegations of corruption are galore. The ruling BJD has been allegedly involved in irregularities worth around Rs 9 lakh crore in the state’s mining sector, even the M B Shah Commission's report has mentioned mining scam to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore.
Another unsolved mystery is the sensational blackrose case. Will ED reopen the case? In 2009, MV BlackRose, a Mongolian cargo ship carrying large amount of tonne iron ore and other minerals illegally capsized in Bay of Bengal off Paradip coast. OTV investigation based on documents obtained from Paradip Port Trust revealed that family members of Jajpur MLA Pranab Prakash Das have links and are associated with Rector Mines, which was one of the two companies that used to transport cargo in MV Black Rose vessel. As per the records, Rector Mines had earlier changed its name from Seven Hills in which former minister and Jajpur MLA Pranab Prakash Das was a share holder. The revelation had stirred a political row in Odisha with opposition going all guns blazing against the ruling BJD.
Be it sapling scam, Omfed scam, cooperative bank loan scam, or the alleged irregularities in Odisha Health Department, the list is endless. It remains to be seen in which direction the ED probe heads now, and who is in their list next.