By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 6, 2015 :

The premiere investigating agency, Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI] on Monday grilled the former additional government advocate Debasish Panda in the Artha Tatwa (Group) chit fund scam at its office here for the second time in the last one week.

Panda, who arrived at the CBI office at around 6 PM, came out of the office around 7 PM after being interrogated for more than one hour.

“I appeared before the CBI to submit some documents asked for by the Central investigating agency. I cannot say anything about the interrogation as the CBI is investigating into the case,” Panda told reporters after coming out.

The CBI officials had interrogated Panda for the first time on April 2 for more than two hours.

On March 25, the Odisha High Court had directed Panda to appear before the CBI on April 2.

The directive of the court came during a hearing on an anticipatory bail petition moved by Panda to avoid possible arrest by the CBI over his alleged links with the AT Group in the mega chit fund scam.

The interim protection granted by the court to Panda earlier is still in force.

The CBI had maintained that Panda’s name had figured in the documents seized during raids at the residence of Crime Branch DSP Pramod Panda indicating his complicity in the AT scam and sought the court’s permission to interrogate him.

The investigating agency had claimed that the seized documents showed Panda’s links with Pradeep Sethi, the former chief of AT Group that called for an investigation into his role in the larger conspiracy.