Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court has granted conditional bail to Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahi in connection with a job fraud case. Panigrahi was granted bail with the condition of furnishing cash security of Rs 5 lakh and bail bond of Rs 2 lakh with two sureties.
The court has directed the legislator to cooperate with the probe agency in the investigation and refrain from influencing any witnesses apart from issuing any statements before the media.
Panigrahi was arrested for impersonating, cheating and on charges of forgery, criminal conspiracy and other cyber offences on December 3 last year by the Crime Branch under Sections various sections of the IPC and Section 66C/66D of the IT Act.
He was booked for collecting money on behalf of Akash Kumar Pathak, son of suspended IFS officer Abhay Pathak.
The Tata Motors had lodged a complaint with the Crime Branch against Akash Pathak alleging that he took huge amount of money fraudulently from unemployed youths to secure them jobs in the company by identifying himself as MD of Tata Motor Pune Passenger Division.
It may be noted that the Pathaks have already been arrested by the State Vigilance on charges of accumulating massive wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.