BHUBANESWAR: The state Crime Branch has come to know that Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy and Akash, son of suspended Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Abhay Kant Pathak, had allegedly taken nearly Rs 6 lakh each from around 120 job aspirants on the false promise of giving them employment in Tata Motors.
Three-time MLA Panigrahy, who was expelled from the BJD on Sunday, was arrested three days later for allegedly colluding with Akash in the job scam. Akash and his father, Abhay Kant, were arrested by officials of the vigilance directorate on November 27 on charges of amassing disproportionate assets.
“Our prima facie investigation has revealed that Panigrahy and Akash had hatched the plan of duping jobseekers around two years ago. They had taken money from engineering students by offering them jobs of graduate engineer trainee and management trainee in Tata Motors. Each victim had paid a minimum of Rs 6 lakh for the job,” a Crime Branch official said.
In May and September, Tata Motors lodged complaints with the Crime Branch alleging that Akash had introduced himself as a senior functionary of the company in Pune and duped several youths by promising them jobs in the reputed corporate firm.
Akash had allegedly given appointment letters to about 120 aspirants in two batches by offering them salaries ranging between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 8 lakh per annum. The Crime Branch officials said the number of job aspirants, who were cheated by the duo, could be more than 120.
After giving the offer letters to the job aspirants, Akash and Panigrahy had allegedly conducted online and offline training sessions for several months for the victims. The Crime Branch has seized some appointment/offer letters from the victims.
“We found that Akash had created a fake logo of Tata Motors. He had also created his fake identity card, email ID and social media handles by claiming himself to be a Tata Motors employee,” the investigating official said. Tata Motors came to know about the scam in May this year after one of the victims approached the company’s office in Pune for joining.
The Crime Branch suspects the involvement of more persons in the fake job racket. “We will be able to know more about Akash’s modus operandi once we take him as well as Panigrahy in remand for interrogation. The complicity of some more agents and conmen in the racket cannot be ruled out,” the official said.