Two Arrests in Big Scam Build Heat for Odisha Chief Minister

Parliamentarian Ramchandra Hansdah, 44, was arrested today on charges of conspiracy and cheating. He has been suspended from the ruling party.

Just four days ago, another top leader from Mr Patnaik's party, Pravat Tripathy, was arrested by the CBI.

The CBI is investigating how about 40 companies swindled lakhs of small investors, many of them in rural areas, through Ponzi schemes over mostly the last decade.

The investors were promised high returns; the funds they invested in were largely unlicensed investments and saving schemes. Some of them registered as cooperatives and then carried out illegal chit fund operations that they were not licensed for.

"Naveen Patnaik is an honest man. He's not involved. Nobody is saying he is. He has a clean image. That's his USP. Everybody knows it. The government has no role in this. BJP politicians have also been arrested. The CM is very clear- (there is) no question of protecting anybody. Anybody who's guilty will be punished," said BJD leader Pinaki Misra.

The CBI was assigned to the case in May this year by the Supreme Court. Investigators believe over 20000 crores were accrued by the companies involved.

Mr Hansdah, the parliamentarian arrested today, has been accused by the CBI of criminal conspiracy and cheating. He was allegedly a director of one of the companies being investigated by the CBI.

Last month, Mr Hansdah told NDTV that he was not aware of any illegalities and that he helped found the company in his constituency to create employment opportunities.

His colleague, Mr Tripathy, arrested earlier, is seen as a close aide of the Chief Minister.  He has been accused of accepting kickbacks to help register a company called the Artha Tatwa with the government.

The CBI says that crores were swindled by the Artha Tatwa Group and that Mr Tripathy was among the government officials it bribed to look the other way as it duped investors.