BERHAMPUR: The Crime Branch (CB) team left Ganjam on Sunday after completing its first phase inquiry into disproportionate assets case of IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak and the alleged job fraud by his son Akash with support of expelled BJD MLA Pradeep Panigrahy.
The CB team collected details of four bank accounts of the Pathaks and recorded statements of 18 persons. Of them, 10 persons are victims who allegedly paid lakhs of rupees to get jobs and the rest eight are close aides of Panigrahy.
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Though details of the first phase inquiry are not known, a senior official said crores of rupees were reportedly transacted in bank accounts in last four months.
The CB team also took photo copies of around 2,000 pages from records of divisional forest and Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC) offices in Berhampur.
The official further informed that details of transactions of the eight aides of Panigrahy are being collected. Other associates of the MLA as well as traders, builders and BJD leaders would be quizzed.
Meanwhile, the district BJP and Congress leaders are making all-out efforts to encash on the situation by levelling more allegations against Panigrahy.
On the day, Ganjam district Congress committee president and Sanakhemundi MLA Ramesh Jena alleged that Panigrahy was instrumental in registering over 53 fabricated criminal cases against him. The public is aware of the misdeeds of Panigrahy who adopted crooked ways to harass his opponents, he said.
“It was an open secret that he indulged in collection of huge funds from liquor and sand traders. However, he always managed to get away scot-free,” Jena claimed.
The allegation of Jena about Panigrahy framing him in false cases was corroborated by a woman on whose complaint a case was registered against the Sanakhemundi MLA. The woman told mediapersons that she was forced to lodge complaint against Jena by the supporters of Panigrahy.