CBI Court Grants Bail to 3 Arrested in Odisha Bribery Case

Bhubaneswar: A special CBI court here on Wednesday granted conditional bail to three persons arrested in connection with a bribery case in Odisha.

The court granted bail to Chanchal Mukherjee, group general manager of the CPSU Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited, and contractors Santosh Moharana and Debadutta Mohapatra.

The bail was granted by the court on the production of a bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties each, said advocate Subham Satpathy, one of the lawyers engaged by the accused persons.

While granting bail, the court put a condition that the accused persons cannot leave Bhubaneswar without its permission. They will also not attempt to tamper with evidence and will cooperate with the investigation.

The CBI had on evening of December 7 arrested the trio and seized Rs 10 lakh from a car outside a hotel in the city.

According to the CBI, the accused were involved in corrupt and illegal activities related to awarding work orders and clearing bills in exchange for bribes. Later, the central agency had interrogated the trio after taking them on remand in two phases, for eight days.

Following the arrest and during the course of the investigation, the CBI also summoned several people including senior IAS officer Bishnupada Sethi.

Meanwhile, the Odisha government said it has taken all steps that were required and would take further steps on the basis of the findings of the CBI into alleged involvement of Sethi in the case.

The state government on Tuesday transferred and appointed Sethi as the officer on special duty in the General Administration & Public Grievance Department, after the CBI issued a summons to him in a bribery case.

Sethi, a 1995-batch IAS officer, was the principal secretary of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and ST&SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare departments. He also had additional charge as principal secretary of Odia Language, Literature & Culture Department.

Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo, while replying to reporters' queries, said, "We have taken all steps that were required... He (Sethi) has been summoned by the CBI and he will tell whatever there is to the agency. When the final report (of the investigation) comes out, the state government will take steps based on the findings." A day-long wait by reporters near the CBI office here turned futile as Sethi did not turn up to record his statement in the alleged bribery case.

The CBI had on December 10 issued a summons to Sethi asking him to depose before the CBI investigating officer on December 11 at its Bhubaneswar office.

Though Sethi did not turn up, the CBI has grilled three drivers working in separate government departments and engaged in duty of the principal secretary.

Several attempts to get a statement from Sethi also failed to yield any result as he did not respond to calls or messages. The CBI also remained tight-lipped on its next move in the event Sethi did not cooperate with the investigation.

The CBI, in a letter to Sethi, on December 10 said, "It is learnt that you are acquainted with some important and relevant facts and circumstances of the instant CBI case, which are required to be ascertained from you." Odisha government sources said that on October 19, Sethi had written to Mukherjee regarding assignments of projects for upgrading an ashram school to a high school and a high school to a higher secondary school in Boudh and Nayagarh districts. The two projects are worth Rs 37 crore.

The CBI has not made it clear whether these school upgradation projects have anything to do with the bribery case in which three persons were arrested on December 7.