CBI arrests former Advocate General Asok Mohanty; Investigation urgent into role of Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Amongst all other Orissan Media, ORISSA MATTERS was the first to dissect the intricate connection of Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra and Advocate Asok Mohanty with chit fund mafia Pradeep Sethy. The posting, dated July 22, was captioned:

Judicial Enquiry Essential to determine if Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra did not act a conduit for a chit fund mafia

Neither such emphasis was laid in social media nor in any print media till then. Alok Jena’s case in the Supreme Court was not having this matter in particular at the crux. Jayant Kumar Das’s input pregnant with information obtained under RTI was in disarray. We had to conduct a bit research before preferring the posting. Jayant babu had dug out the core information on which we had to improve upon. The CBI was yet to step in. So, I had, in the July 22 posting, insisted upon Judicial enquiry into role of Justice Mohapatra to find out if being a High Court Judge he had acted a conduit for Pradeep Sethy.

When under orders of the Supreme Court, CBI commenced its investigation, Mohanty quitted the post of Advocate General about two month of exposure in these pages and faced the sleuths the next day.We insisted that he and Justice Mohapatra being two vertices of the same triangle of offense formed with Pradeep Sethy, both should be subjected to investigation at the same time. The article was captioned:

Advocate General quits and faces CBI; Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra be probed now

Now as CBI has officially arrested Mohanty, and Sethy is already in judicial custody, the left out vertex Justice Laxmikant Mohapatra shall have to be probed into. Without this, the probe cannot be completed.

We believe, the CBI must have taken up with the appropriate authorities – the Supreme Court, the President – for necessary clearance to bring Justice Mohapatra to its investigational jurisdiction. Without any prejudice thereto, we may say that it would be better for Justice Mohapatra to voluntarily state if he has not acted a conduit for chit fund cheat Pradeep Sethy.

It is really disgusting to wait for action when a judge is an object of suspicion in a felony of this type.