Odisha chit fund scam: CBI probe reaches Naveen Patnaik's doorsteps

Bhubaneswar: His is the ultimate political rags-to-riches story. How the man who, till a few years ago, was slogging away on his Remington at a documentation centre in Bhubaneswar rose to become Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Man Friday is the stuff political legends are made of. [caption id=“attachment_1818375” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. PTI[/caption] When BJD MP Ramachandra Hansda, senior party MLA Pravat Tripathy and former MLA Subarna Nayak were arrested by the CBI for their alleged role in the mega chit fund scam in the state, Naveen Patnaik sought to brush it aside saying, without batting an eyelid, it was ‘their personal affair’ and ‘the party had nothing to do with it.’ But he can hardly do the same in the case of Saroj Sahu, who was grilled by the CBI for nearly two hours on Saturday because anyone who has been to Naveen Nivas, the chief minister’s residence, knows not a leaf moved in its precincts without Sahu’s permission. Visitors to Naveen Nivas vouch for the fact that Sahu used to spend 14-16 hours a day at Naveen Nivas and enjoyed the complete trust of the chief minister. He handled everything from regulating his appointments to looking after his personal affairs and even issuing press releases on behalf of his boss as the ‘authorised signatory’. [Ironically, the suspension order on Hansda & Co was issued with his signature!). Such was his clout that even the senior bureaucrats used to request him to fix an appointment with the chief minister. Sources in the party say Sahu, a native of Khandapada area of Nayagarh district, was appointed a typist on a paltry salary at the BJD head office, which operated out of Naveen Nivas at the time (as it does even now, some will argue), after the party was formed in 1998. He came closer to Naveen after the latter became the chief minister in 2000. Soon, he was relieved of his typing responsibilities and was entrusted with looking after the day-to-day affairs of the Chief Minister. In keeping with his elevation in status, he was soon allotted a special chamber at Naveen Niwas where he managed party affairs on behalf of his boss. The influence of Sahu in the party rose manifold after the expulsion of the party’s de facto No 2 Pyari Mohan Mohapatra in 2012 for staging a failed coup against Naveen. A senior BJD leader, requesting anonymity, says the chief minister, had told him after the expulsion of Mohapatra from the party that “Pyari ke jaane se kuchh phark nehi padega. Saroj ko teen mobile phone dene se woh bhi Pyari ka kaam kardega” (“Pyari’s departure will make no difference. Saroj can take care of the work that Pyari did if he is given three mobile phones”). Sahu certainly lived up to the expectation of his boss, playing a crucial role in deciding party nominations during the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in April this year and even receiving and distributing cash to party candidates. In keeping with his new found status, this one time lowly typist reportedly purchased a two-storey building a few hundred meters from Naveen Nivas at a cost of about Rs 55 lakh recently. Besides, he has two other houses in the city, sources said. CBI sources told Firstpost that Sahu was questioned about his intimate links with the Seashore group of companies, the biggest player in the mega chit fund scam in Odisha, face-to-face with Seashore CMD Prashant Dash and Subhankar Nayak, the fixer who liaised with top political leaders, bureaucrats and police officials on behalf of the company – both of whom are presently in CBI custody. Both Dash and Nayak were apparently in constant touch with Sahu. No wonder the files of Seashore, which had signed a dozen MoUs with the Odisha government in sectors as varied as agriculture, tourism and health, moved at breakneck speed. Sahu’s interrogation has sent a panic wave among the BJD top brass, who apprehend that the CBI’s next stop could be the supremo himself. Having read the writing on the wall, a terrified Chief Minister is said to have denied permission to the man, who was lord of all he surveyed in the hallowed precincts of Naveen Nivas just hours before, to enter the premises after his return from the CBI office in the afternoon on Saturday. The chief minister’s decision to drop him like a hot potato is entirely in line with the way he has dealt with other party leaders like Pravat Tripathy, Ramachandra Hansda and Subarna Nayak arrested by the CBI. Naveen Patnaik has not opened his mouth on the CBI interrogation of his Man Friday. Instead, he has fielded his party spokespersons to allege a ‘political conspiracy’ in questioning his personal aide to defame the BJD supremo. But unfortunately for him, there are no takers for this line.