BJD MLA arrested in chit fund scam admitted to hospital

Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal, who was arrested by the CBI in a chit fund scam, has been admitted to a government hospital after being referred to there by doctors at jail hospital, officials said today.

Dr C R Das, director of Capital Hospital, where the Cuttack-Choudwar legislator was admitted to last night, said, “The MLA has several complaints. We have carried out medical examinations. The reports are awaited.”

Biswal, who was taken on remand by the CBI on September 20, was produced before the special CBI court yesterday, a day before his remand period was to end, and the probe agency told the court that the MLA’s interrogation was over.

Following this, the court sent Biswal to jail.

It had ordered the jail authorities to conduct a medical check up of the legislator after his lawyer Anup Senapati informed the court that his client should be shifted to a hospital due to his post-operative illness.

The CBI, probing the multi-crore Seashore Group chit fund scam, had called Biswal, a three-time MLA, to its office here on September 18 and subsequently arrested him.

The investigating agency is probing alleged payment of Rs 25 lakh by Seashore Chairman cum Managing Director Prasanta Kumar Dash to Biswal in two instalments as “protection money” for allowing smooth operations of the company in his constituency, CBI sources had said.

—PTI