Supreme Court Stays Trial Against Former Odisha Advocate General Ashok Mohanty In Case Linked With Artha Tatwa Scam

The Supreme Court of India recently stayed trial court proceedings against former Advocate General for the State of Odisha, Ashok Mohanty in connection with a case pertaining to the Artha Tatwa scam.

“Since it is pointed out that the proceedings before the trial court had been stayed qua the petitioner herein when the matter was pending before the High Court, we deem it appropriate to stay the further proceedings against the petitioner only, in the said proceedings”, a Bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli observed while issuing notice in the plea challenging a Orissa High Court order passed in October, last year.

In October, the High Court had denied relief to Mohanty, by rejecting his revision petition against a Trial Court order which had dismissed his discharge petition in the case.

During the hearing on February 13, Senior Advocate R Basant informed the Bench that even before the High Court, the trial court proceedings (against the petitioner) were stayed. Basant was briefed by Advocate on Record Gaurav Khanna.

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

The matter will next come up for hearing on April 5.

Background

The petitioner served as the Advocate General for the State of Odisha from 2009 to 2014. 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. He allegedly used the money collected from the investors to purchase the aforesaid building. Later on, the same building was sold to Mr. Mohanty (the petitioner).

Though the sale transaction was reflected to be of Rupees One Crore and One Lakh, it was alleged by the prosecution that an amount of Rs. 70 Lakhs was actually paid by the petitioner to Mr. Sethy. Hence, it was stated that he illegally misappropriated Rs. 31 Lakhs of public money. During the time when the above transaction was made, severe protests were going on against Mr. Sethy by the depositors. Subsequently, Mr. Sethy moved the Orissa High Court for anticipatory bail. It was alleged by the prosecution that Mr. Mohanty entered into a criminal conspiracy with Mr. Sethy and ensured the grant of bail by not advancing any serious objection to the said application and not even calling for case diary.

The petitioner was charge-sheeted under Sections 120-B, 406, 409, 411, 420, 468, 471 of Indian Penal Code ('IPC') read with Sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 ('1978 Act'). Subsequently, he filed an application under Section 239, Cr.P.C. for discharge. However, the same was rejected by the Special Chief Judicial Magistrate (C.B.I.), Bhubaneswar.

Case Title: Asok @ Ashok Mohanty v. Republic of India | Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.1775/2023

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