ED Grills Akash Pathak In Tata Motors Job Fraud Case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will grill Akash Pathak, son of suspended IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak, in connection with a case of cheating several job seekers to the tune of crores of rupees on the pretext of employing them with Tata Motors on December 7 last year.

A three-member team of the ED will interrogate Akash at Special Jail in Bhubaneswar.  Akash, who is presently lodged at the Jharsuguda Jail has been brought to Bhubaneswar for questioning. The Court of the District & Sessions Judge in Khordha had allowed the ED to question Akash in connection with the job scam case.

The ED will interrogate Akash to elicit vital information about the involvement of other persons in the job scam, methods he adopted in duping the job seekers and the source of the crores of deposits in his bank accounts.

Earlier on June 13, the former BJD leader and Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy, who was a co-accused in the Tata Motors job scam, was released on bail by Orissa High Court.

Panigrahi was in jail since December 3, 2020 after his arrest by the State CID for collecting bribes from job aspirants with the false promise of employment in Tata Motors. 

Later on June 25, the Orissa HC had also granted conditional bail to Akash in connection with Tata Motors ‘job fraud’ case registered at Baidynathpur police station in Ganjam district.

Akash had allegedly duped crores of rupees from job aspirants by impersonating a senior officer of Tata Motors. He used to give fake appointment letters to youths by offering them jobs of graduate engineer and management trainee with salaries ranging between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 8 lakh per annum. Police said that the Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy, whose daughter was set to marry Akash, used to take money on behalf of Akash from the job seekers.