Bhubaneswar, March 13: The Crime Branch of Odisha Police arrested Soumya Shankar Chakra, alias Raja Chakra, the state vice-president of Biju Yuva Janata Dal, on Thursday in connection with a multi-crore mining and transport scam.
This arrest follows the rejection of Chakra's plea by the Orissa High Court on Wednesday, which sought interim protection from arrest. According to Vinaytosh Mishra, Additional DGP of CID Crime Branch, Chakra was interrogated about his involvement in the scam before being taken into custody.
In February 2025, the Economic Offence Wing of the Crime Branch registered a case based on allegations of irregularities in the operations of the Gandhamardan Loading (GML) Agency and a cooperative society in Keonjhar district. The cooperative was established for the welfare of villagers impacted by mining activities.
The investigation revealed that the GML Agency earned approximately Rs 185 crore from 2017-18 to March 24, 2024. Authorities found that the president and secretary of the cooperative society, Manas Barik and Utkal Das, alongside several local influential individuals, defrauded substantial amounts of money.
Of the misappropriated funds, Rs 34 crore was allocated for peripheral development, but no work was carried out. In addition, Rs 9.1 crore was diverted to a petrol pump that did not supply fuel to GML, but instead to vehicles belonging to Soumya Shankar Chakra, with payments made by GML.
The investigation also uncovered that Rs 33 crore were distributed to villagers, who were members of the cooperative society. Furthermore, about Rs 74 crore was claimed as loading charges and labor payments, but an audit of the corresponding records revealed significant discrepancies. The Crime Branch intends to conduct a full audit of the period to uncover further financial irregularities. Notably, the cooperative society has not undergone an audit since 2012-2013.
While Chakra was not officially linked to the cooperative society, investigators found that he had been exerting control over its operations through his associates, Sadashiv Samal, Sudhansu Shekhar Naik, and Samir Jena.
To date, the Crime Branch has seized 42 vehicles belonging to Raja Chakra and frozen several bank accounts based on its financial investigation.
