By Our Correspondent, Bhubaneswar, January 24, 2015

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday arrested Pravat Dash, brother of Seashore group of companies chief Prashant Dash, in connection with the multi-crore chit fund scam.

The federal probe agency grilled Dash here this morning for some time for alleged misappropriation of Rs 3 crore transferred to his account.

‘‘I want to make it clear that I don’t have any involvement in the misappropriations. I’m being framed,’’ Pravat told the waiting media persons outside the central agency’s regional office here.

Dash was director of as many as 15 ventures of the Seashore group of companies, including Seashore Securities Ltd.

Seashore Security had allegedly collected investments worth over Rs 1500 crore from investors from across the state assuring them of high returns.

‘‘My client Pravat Dash has been granted anticipatory bail by High Court in several cases lodged by the state Crime Branch. Today, he has been arrested in a similar case. However, the investigating officer said, it is a fresh case. This is not proper. Some funds were transferred to his account regarding a land deal at Angul for which payments were done through cash as well as cheques,’’ Bijay Kumar Kar, counsel of Dash, said.

Dash was declared arrested following a questioning session in the morning. He is accused of embezzling company funds to the tune of Rs 3 crore.

The CBI is investigating fraud by Seashore group of companies as part of multi-thousand crore Odisha chit fund scam.