Bhubaneswar: A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted multiple raids at 10 places linked to former minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Prafulla Samal, the central probing agency on Friday seized a car and Rs 10 lakh from his son Prayaskanti Samal’s residence at Palaspalli in Bhubaneswar.
Samal and his son are alleged to have swindled crores of rupees collected from students as fee to buy lands and flats in Bhubaneswar and other places. Though there were complaints against Samal and his son, no action was taken against them. As a result, the case was handed over to ED.
According to sources close to ED, Samal’s son had allegedly sold land belonging to Barapada Engineering College to a builder agency named Trishna Skyscraper Limited through sale deed. The ED sleuths had also seized important documents pertaining to land sale from Prayaskanti’s residence.
ED sources revealed that the said land was purchased at Kantabada area in Bhubaneswar for Barpada Engineering College and later the land property was sold to the builder’s agency. The ED investigation is on to ascertain the truth.
It is learnt that Prayaskanti was not present during ED raid on Thursday for which the central investigating agency had to carry out raid at the former’s residence today.
The ED team also raided the house of Debabrat Dhir, director of the builder’s firm, and seized documents related to land sale.
On Thursday, the ED had raided as many as 10 places including six places in Bhadrak and four places in Bhubaneswar belonging to MLA Prafulla Samal who represents Bhandaripokhari constituency.
Besides, ED also raided the house of the former principal of Barapada Engineering College which is being run by Samal.
It is suspected that the raids were carried out in connection with Rs 20 crore land scam involving Barapada Engineering College.
