Saradha scam: Searches by CBI

The CBI on Tuesday conducted search operations in 18 locations in Delhi, Mumbai and Bhubneswar in connection with the money-collection scam by Odisha based Seashore group of companies. According to official sources, searches were going on at one at one place each in Delhi and Mumbai and 16 places in Odisha. The main places include residences of Rajya Sabha MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra at Bhubaneswar and New Delhi; residences of two retired IAS officers, offices of industrialists, brokers “through whom cash dealings were made” and residences of certain other close associates of CMD of Seashore P K Dash, a CBI official said. A retired bureaucrat Pyari Mohan Mohapatra was political advisor to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He was suspended from the ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, in 2012.