By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 8, 2015 :

This is the finding of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which on Saturday filed a preliminary charge sheet against the Seashore group of companies in the mega Odisha chit fund scam case at the special CBI court here.

The 276-page charge sheet, filed by investigating officer of the case Rabi Narayan Tripathy along with CBI senior counsel Kali Charan Mishra, has named Seashore chairman and managing director (CMD) Prashant Dash, his brother Pravat Dash and middleman Subhankar Nayak and accused the company of swindling Rs 578.20 crore.

The charge sheet has slapped charges against the accused under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 120 (B), 409, 420 of IPC and sections 4, 5, 6 of the Prize Chit and Money Circulation (Banning) Act, 1978.

Prashant Dash was arrested by state Crime Branch from Mumbai on June 20, 2013 before the case was handed over to the CBI under Supreme Court order.

The CBI had arrested Subhankar – the land broker, on November 18 last year. It also raided his house in Chandrama Apartments in Kharavela Nagar.

The CBI had also seized a dairy having the names of senior police officers and bureaucrats, who allegedly received money from Seashore through him, had connection with Nayak.

On January 24 CBI had arrested Pravat accusing him of embezzling company funds to the tune of Rs 3 crores.
“The chargesheet filed on Saturday is only a preliminary one to meet the statutory requirement of filing the charge sheet within 120 days and a supplementary charge sheet could follow,” sources in the CBI said.

Nayak played a major role in the transfer of Seashore money to ‘influential people’, but the agency has not named them in the preliminary charge sheet. Their names would be given in the supplementary charge sheet to be filed later, it said.