SunstarTV Bureau: The Vigilance Court has granted bail to suspended IFS officer from Odisha Abhay Kant Pathak and his son Akash, post two months of their arrest. The bail has been granted by ‘default’ due to non-submission of the charge-sheet by the Vigilance, on Wednesday.
According to the report, today, the Pathaks were granted ‘default’ bail as the investigating agency failed to file the charge-sheet in two months (60 days).
Notably, the father-son duo was arrested in November last year by the anti-corruption wing on charges of accumulating massive ‘ill-gotten’ wealth.
Almost 150 officials were roped in to conduct simultaneous raids at the property of the Pathaks in and outside the State following allegations of possession of disproportionate assets. Following the arrest, the 1987-batch Indian Forest Service officer Pathak was suspended from his service and subsequently, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik also recommended sending the official on compulsory retirement.
His son Akash Pathak, on the other hand, was accused of conspiring with expelled BJD leader and Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahi and cheating several job seekers to the tune of cores of rupees on the pretext of employing them with the Tata Motors. To dupe the innocents, Pathak allegedly impersonated as the MD of the company.
In a statement, Spokesperson of the Tata Motors Spokesperson issued a clarification stating that “Mr Akash Kumar Pathak is not a bonafide employee of Tata Motors Limited. It was brought to our attention that he was impersonating as the MD (I/C), Tata Motors Limited, Passenger Vehicle, Pune, and seeking money from gullible persons under a fake enticement to provide Jobs in Tata Motors Limited. Accordingly, the Company lodged an FIR having # 0026, dated 23/09/2020 at 20:33 HRS before the CIDCB, Cuttack, Odisha.”
Not only this, Sky King, a Bhubaneswar-based travel agency was also allegedly defrauded by the Pathaks.
They (Abhay and Akash) had booked chartered flights, five-star hotels and air tickets through the agency which cost around Rs 2.78 core. However, they have paid Rs 2.13 core while an outstanding bill of Rs 65,16,233 is yet to be cleared, the agency mentioned in the complaint filed with the Commissionerate Police last month.
