The Orissa High Court has recently denied relief to former Advocate General (‘AG’) for the State, Ashok Mohanty, by rejecting his revision petition against a Trial Court order which had dismissed his discharge petition in a case which is allegedly linked with Artha Tatwa ponzi scam.
Pradeep Sethy, the proprietor of the Artha Tatwa group of companies allegedly duped a number of innocent investors of their money after offering them to provide higher returns in terms of interests and incentives under various schemes floated by the company and cheap flats/plots under various projects undertaken by the group.
While discarding submissions made in favour of the ex-AG, a Single Judge Bench of Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo observed,
“…on a careful scrutiny, serious deliberations and analysis of the materials on record, it cannot be said that the accusation levelled against the petitioner by the prosecution particularly for the commission of offences under sections 120-B, 409, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code are groundless and that there are no sufficient grounds for proceeding against the petitioner for such offences.”
Background:
The petitioner served as the Advocate General for the State of Odisha between 2009-2014. Accused Pradeep Sethy, the Chief Managing Director of the Artha Tatwa company allegedly purchased a building located at Bidanashi, Cuttack from a former Judge of the Orissa High Court for a consideration of Rs. 1 Crore. It is alleged that he used the money…
