political news: Bhubaneswar, (Reporterspen), Jan 8: The Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) in Berhampur acquitted BJP MP Pradeep Panigrahy on Wednesday in three remaining job fraud cases against him. This decision follows his previous acquittal by the special designated court for MPs and MLAs in two other cases linked to alleged job scams at Golanthara and Baidyanathpur police stations.
In total, five job fraud cases were filed against the Berhampur MP, accusing him of deceiving youths with false promises of employment in an automobile company. On Tuesday, Panigrahy’s counsel, Deepak Patnaik, stated that the lack of evidence led to his client’s acquittal in the two earlier cases. The court also acquitted former IFS officer Abhay Pathak and his son Akash, who were co-accused in one of the cases.
During the hearings, complainants Lakshmidhar Naya and Kartik Pradhan, a former police constable and Panigrahy’s security officer when he was the Gopalpur MLA, testified that Panigrahy did not collect any money from them for job placements at Tata Motors. Furthermore, the complainants revealed to the court that they had faced pressure from senior officials and BJD leaders to file FIRs against Panigrahy.
They also indicated they had never encountered the Pathaks, who were implicated in only one case. Notably, Panigrahy was arrested by the CID Crime Branch of Odisha Police on December 3, 2020, for his alleged involvement in the job scam, during which he was accused of collecting significant sums of money from youths in exchange for job promises.
