Odisha Court Frame Charges Against Gopalpur MLA In Tata Motors Job Scam

Bhubaneswar: The court of judicial magistrate first class here has framed charges against Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy, his aide V Sarveswar Rao and Akash Pathak, son of dismissed Indian Forest Service officer Abhay Kant Pathak, in an alleged fake job recruitment drive.

The charges have been farmed under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 469, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Sections 66-C/66-D of the Information Technology Act-2000, the sources said.

On September 23, 2020, the Crime branch had registered a case against Akash on the basis of a complaint lodged by Trilochan Mohanty, Deputy General Manager-Ethics of Tata Motors Ltd, Jamshedpur, accusing him of committing forgery by impersonating in-charge MD of the passenger car division of the company. Akash allegedly used the logo of TML and Tata Group and also the brand name of the company and collected money from the gullible job aspirants to provide them jobs in TML.

On November 29 the same year, the BJD expelled Panigrahy from the party for his alleged links with Akash. The MLA was arrested on December 3, 2020, for allegedly duping several unemployed persons from Ganjam district by promising them jobs in the company. He had collected the money on behalf of Akash.

The final chargesheet was submitted in the court on February 10, 2022.

The Crime Branch is expecting a quick start to the trail since it has sufficient evidence against the accused to ensure their conviction, sources added