The Orissa High Court has granted conditional bail to senior ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Prabhat Tripathy, an accused in the multi crore chit fund scam.
He was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in October last year for his alleged links with Artha Tatwa (AT) group, a tainted Odisha-based chit fund company. He had been behind the bars since then.
Tripathy, a four time legislator and a former BJD chief whip in the Assembly had moved the high court after his bail application was rejected by lower courts including a designated CBI court here.
The single judge high court bench granted him bail on the condition that after release he would not try to influence the witnesses in the case and would fully cooperate with the CBI in the investigation. He would also furnish a Rs 10 lakh bail bond and deposit his passport with the investigating agency.
The CBI, which is probing into the activities of more than 40 chit fund companies in the state, on the direction of the Supreme Court had arrested the senior legislator after interrogating him thoroughly for several days. The investigating agency had also conducted raids on his houses. He was suspended from the BJD after his arrest.
Tripathy, who represents Banki Assembly constituency in coastal Cuttack district, is the third accused in the chit fund scam relating to AT group who have been granted bail. Earlier, Ashok Mohanty, a former advocate general of the state and Ranjan Das, a close associate of Tripathy had been granted bail in the same case.
A large number of his supporters from his constituency had gathered in front of the Jharpada prison here when Tripathy was released on Wednesday evening. A procession was arranged to welcome him.
