CBI should probe Naveen's role in chit fund scam: BJP

Bhubaneswar, May 10: With the Supreme Court ordering a CBI probe into the Saradha scam, the BJP today attacked Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik accusing him of protecting ponzi firms and demanded inclusion of the BJD supremo's name in the enquiry.

"Naveen Patnaik has to come under the CBI probe net in the chit fund probe. His role needs to be probed .. moreover, he has also been in-charge of Home department," senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said.

Claiming that the Chief Minister and his associates were exposed after the apex court order, he alleged that Patnaik was the captain of team and monitoring the entire process as Home Minister when the crime branch and the commissionerate of police (Bhubaneswar-Cuttack) probed the chit fund scam.

"Now it is the end of the road for Patnaik, who has blots on his cheeks with the Supreme Court ordering a CBI probe into the chit fund scam," Mohapatra told a press meet, also attended by BJP state President K V Singhdeo.

Mohapatra said that when the demand for a CBI probe got shriller, Patnaik wrote to the Orissa High Court with a request to spare a sitting judge to probe it knowing fully well that a sitting judge could not be engaged.

"Then he appointed a commission. When the matter went to the supreme court, the CM engaged a battery of highly paid lawyers to save leaders involved in the scam, though it was a case between chit fund companies and investors, Mohapatra alleged. The senior BJP leader said "The Chief Minister should ask the culprits to surrender before they are caught," he said.

PTI