Was Pradeep Panigrahi falsely implicated in job racket case during BJD tenure?

Following a startling revelation by the lawyer of Berhampur MP Pradeep Panigrahi on Tuesday, it is suspected that the senior BJP leader might have been falsely implicated by BJD in connection with the alleged case of running a job racket for a reputed automobile company.

According to Panigrahi’s lawyer Deepak Patnaik, two complainants- Laxidhar Nayak and Prabhat Kumar Nayak have admitted before the Berhampur JMFC Court that they were pressurized by some senior officials of the district administration and BJD leaders to lodge complaints against Panigrahi in Golanthara police station. Both the complainants further admitted that they had not done any kind of financial transactions with Panigrahi in this regard.

Patnaik gave the explosive statement following the trial of the case in the Berhampur JMFC Court today.

“In connection with two cases in Golanthara police station, both the complainants have admitted before the court that they put their signatures on the complaint report prepared by some senior officials of the administration and BJD leaders under pressure. They also admitted before the court that they had not done any kind of financial transaction with Pradeep Panigrahi,” said Panigrahi’s lawyer Deepak Patnaik.

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“There is no substance of truth in the complaints. The next course of the trial will be revealed in future,” he added.

In response, government lawyer Maguni Palei said, “The informants of both the cases have admitted before the court that they were pressurized to lodge the FIRs and they have not done any kind of financial transactions with Panigrahi. There are five cases against Panigrahi in Berhampur. Statements of other witnesses will be heard in the court in the coming days as part of the trial.”

However, no reactions could be obtained from BJD in this regard.

Notably, former Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahi was arrested by the Odisha Crime Branch on charges of forgery, fraud and criminal conspiracy on December 3.