Bhubaneswar: Tainted ‘Crorepati’ IFS officer Abhay Pathak, facing probe by State Vigilance in connection with a massive corruption scandal, claimed that his son Akash draws a monthly salary of Rs 1 Crore from a company where the latter is employed.
On Thursday, the Vigilance sleuths had brought Akash to Bhubaneswar from Mumbai for questioning in connection with the disproportionate assets case probe launched against his father Abhay, a 1987-batch IFS officer.
Akash has been booked after a senior officials of Tata Motors on Thursday filed a cheating case against him at Crime Branch for duping people by impersonating as the MD of Tata Motors.
“My son Akash earns a monthly salary of Rs 1 Crore from his employers and not through any corrupt means. The allegations against him are false and fabricated,” claimed Pathak while he was taken to the Capital Hospital by Vigilance officials for undergoing medical check-up on Friday.
Speculations are rife that the father-son duo would soon be arrested by the Vigilance department which claims to have unearthed many assets disproportionate to the known sources of income of the IFS officer.
“The allegations against me are false. This is a vindictive action and everything will be proved in the court,” said Akash.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Vigilance had conducted simultaneous searches at several places in Bhubaneswar and other parts of the country including Mumbai of properties linked to Pathak who currently serving as the Additional PCCF, Plan, Programme and Afforestation in Odisha.
The raids which were began on Wednesday, continued till late on Thursday night.
During a search at Pathak’s house and the subsequent inquiry, Vigilance department had allegedly found evidence of cash deposits amounting to Rs 9.4 crore in the bank accounts of Pathak’s son Akash.
Out of the total Rs 9.4 crore, around Rs 8.4 crore was deposited with banks in Bhubaneswar.
Vigilance officials said that Rs 60 lakh cash was recovered during the searches. Apart from costly household articles, gold ornaments weighing 800 grams were also found during the searches.
The anti-corruption wing has also found documents related to purchase of gold ornaments worth Rs 23 lakh by Pathak’s family.
It is pertinent to mention here that expensive vehicles like Mercedes, BMW and Tata Harrier and three Yamaha FZ5 motorcycles have been found registered in the name of Akash who has also been hiring costly vehicles, the Vigilance officials said.
During the search at Pune, papers related to the hiring of three vehicles including two Mercedes cars for Rs 25 lakh by Akash had also been found.
Furthermore, more than Rs.1 crore has been paid towards the rent of some luxury apartments and a farmhouse.
Bills of more than 90 lakhs at Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai and advance booking amount of Rs.20 lakh at Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur in Rajasthan have also been paid by Akash
The foreign travel details of tours to Malaysia, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Maldives etc. have been obtained, the official said.
The IFS officer came under the Vigilance glare for his tours on charted plans during the COVID-19 induced lockdown. Charter flight bills worth nearly Rs 3 crores involving travel from and to cities like Pune, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Juhu, Mumbai, Jamshedpur, Delhi etc. have also been ascertained during searches by the Vigilance.