Bhubaneswar: A CBI’s summons to senior IAS officer Bishnupada Sethi in connection with a Rs 10 lakh bribery case triggered a political slugfest in Odisha Sunday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) December 10 issued a summons to Sethi, the principal secretary of ST&SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department. He also holds additional charge as principal secretary of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department.
The CBI Saturday interrogated Sethi’s three drivers in connection with the case. Sethi was summoned to join the investigation at CBI’s Bhubaneswar office December 11, sources said, adding that the bureaucrat sought more time through his lawyers.
ST&SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Minister Nityananda Gond said that everything will be clear after the probe.
While Opposition Congress raised doubts over the final outcome of the case, BJD demanded that the investigation into corruption cases should not be delayed.
Former OPCC president Jayadev Jena feared that there may not be any concrete action in the case.
“The hype being created now, may gradually die down,” Jena said.
He alleged that the corruption cases which came to the fore during the previous BJD regime were later “neutralised” by the BJP.
“Keeping in view the past record, the present case may also end up in the cold storage,” Jena alleged, while demanding stringent action against the corrupt officers irrespective of his or her position.
Senior BJD leader Sudhir Samal said that during the previous Naveen Patnaik government, the Vigilance Department cracked down on corrupt officials.
“A senior IAS officer was suspended in the housing scam,” Samal said.
He said that the BJP has no reason to boast of its ‘double-engine’ government, if it failed in taking action against corrupt persons.
The ruling BJP, on the other hand, claimed that the Mohan Majhi government in the state is determined to take stringent action against anyone, including bureaucrats and political leaders, if found involved in corrupt practices.
“The state BJP government will not tolerate any form of corruption,” BJP MLA from Bhubaneswar-Ekamra, Babu Singh, said.
Stating that corruption had become widespread during the BJD’s 24-year rule in Odisha, Singh said stringent action will be taken against anyone found involved in corruption.
“The Chief Minister has said that corrupted persons will find their place in jail in the BJP regime,” Singh said.
The CBI wanted to ascertain from Sethi some important facts regarding the bribery case in which the investigating agency has arrested three persons, including Chanchal Mukherjee, group general manager, Bridge and Roof Construction Company Ltd, Bhubaneswar.
In a letter to the IAS officer, CBI inspector Gurjinder Singh December 10 said, “It is learnt that you are acquainted with some important and relevant facts and circumstances of the instant CBI case, which are required to be ascertained from you.”
Meanwhile, Mukherjee’s lawyer Rajesh Mishra said he would move the court seeking bail for his client.
The CBI is scheduled to produce the three arrested accused in the court after the completion of their five-day remand Monday.
“My client is unwell and I will move a bail petition in the court,” Mishra told reporters on the CBI office premises here.
“I have not been able to talk to him since he has been taken to hospital. I will move a bail petition tomorrow,” Mishra said.
On October 19, 2024, Sethi wrote to Mukherjee regarding the assignment of projects for upgrading an ashram school to high school and a high school to higher secondary school in Boudh and Nayagarh districts. The two projects are worth Rs 37 crore, state government sources said.
However, the CBI has not made it clear whether these school upgradation projects have anything to do with the bribery case.
PTI