Pall of gloom descends on BJD

BHUBANESWAR: The arrest of BJD MP Ramachandra Hansda and MLA Pravat Tripathy in quick succession has come like a noose for the ruling party amid speculation that many others, including ministers would fall into the CBI net.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced suspension of Hansda and Tripathy from the party without loss of time. His party's spokespersons have since been insisting that BJD stood by probity in public life and transparent governance.
But in the surcharged atmosphere of lakhs of people demanding their money and the CBI unearthing the political patronage received by the chit fund companies, few are willing to buy the BJD story. "The development is disturbing. I cannot say this bodes well for the BJD," a local TV channel quoted BJD MLA and party spokesman Sashibhushan Behera as saying.
Many BJD leaders were unanimous that an atmosphere of acute nervousness has overcast the BJD. "We may have to pay a heavy price for allowing nearly 200 chit fund companies to operate. Some were so powerful that ministers non-chalantly shared public platforms with them, thereby giving an indirect official sanction to their activities," said a senior BJD leader requesting anonymity.
Words are doing the rounds that CBI has got tips about involvement of many senior BJD leaders and ministers in the scam and will summon them for questioning in the next few days. What seems to have added fuel to BJD panic is the simultaneous probe by Enforcement Directorate (ED) to dig out money trail.
The ED sources said that it is currently examining how the state government awarded a host of projects to the Seashore Group, which invested Rs 50 crore .
"If others could be arrested for accepting money illegally earned by chit fund companies, ministers and officials will also be arrested for their complicity," said an ED source.
Prior to CBI taking over chit fund probe, the state government had asked the Crime Branch to start investigation.
This happened only when there was public outcry in West Bengal over Sharada scam and its cascading effect in Odisha with thousands of chit fund victims holding protests and taking out rallies. But when the scam came for hearing in the Supreme Court, the state government developed cold feet to agree to a CBI probe.
"A large number of BJD leaders are involved in the chit fund scam. Without their connivance such a scam would not have been possible. The Crime Branch probe was intended to shield politicians. The CBI arrests prove it," said PCC president Jayadev Jena.