Five more persons, arrested by the CBI for their alleged involvement in the Artha Tatwa chit fund scam and link with AT group chief Pradeep Sethy, were today granted conditional bail by the Orissa High Court.
A local television channel owner Manoj Das, Odia newspaper owner Bikash Swain, builder Vineet Lalani and AT Group executives Sambit Khuntia and Manoj Patnaik were granted the conditional bail by Justice B K Nayak.
All five were lodged in jails for over two years. While Patnaik was released on bail for a brief period in 2015, he was re-arrested in a subsequent case in this connection.
The high court had previously granted bail in this connection to BJD legislator Pravat Tripathy, builder Sagar Kumar Ray and crime branch DSP Pramod Panda.
Following the high court’s intervention, the Khurda district and sessions court had granted bail to former advocate general Asok Mohanty and additional government advocate Debashis Panda.
( Source – PTI )
