CBI raids former Odisha minister Debi Mishra's house in Seashore Ponzi scam

BHUBANESWAR: After a long hiatus, the CBI intensified its probe into the Seashore Group chit fund scam and raided the residence of senior BJD leader and former minister Debi Prasad Mishra at Unit-1 area in Bhubaneswar on Friday. Seashore Group was accused of cheating investors of more than Rs 500 crore.
The scam caused maximum embarrassment to the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) as the state government had engaged the Seashore Group to execute several projects in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode in the past.One of the projects was from the tourism department of which Debi Mishra was the minister in 2008-09.
“Our simultaneous raids at seven places are under way. Mishra’s alleged complicity is being investigated,” a CBI officer said.
On August 5, 2016, the CBI had interrogated Mishra’s diarist Dilip Mishra and associate Prafulla Singh, a former BJD executive president of Cuttack district. CBI had arrested former BJD MLA Pravat Biswal on September 19, 2017 for his alleged links with the scam. BJD former MP Rabindra Jena too was quizzed twice by the CBI in connection with the Ponzi scam in the past. The BJD suffered a body blow when Naveen Patnaik’s former personal aide Saroj Sahoo deposed before the CBI officers for interrogation in November 2014 in Seashore case.
A few IAS and IPS officers were also quizzed by the CBI in connection with the scam after a key accused Subhankar Nayak spilled the beans. Nayak’s diaries, seized by the CBI, contained names of several IAS and IPS officers, who had allegedly availed kickbacks from the Seashore Group to help the illegal money circulation business flourish.