Former powerful BJD leader and Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy was released on bail on Sunday after spending little over seven months in jail in a case of cheating youths with fake promises of jobs in Tata Motors.
The 56-year-old was granted bail by Orissa high court on Friday in connection with the Tata Motors job fraud case registered at Golanthara police station in Ganjam district. The court had earlier granted him bail in six similar cases registered against him.
Three cases were lodged against Panigrahy at Golanthara police station, two with Baidyanathpur police station in Ganjam district and one with Odisha crime branch. Panigrahi deposited a cash security of ₹69.45 lakh for all the cases, including ₹47.45 lakh and ₹6 lakh for the cases lodged with the CID and Baidyanathpur police station respectively.
Panigrahy, who recently tested positive for Covid, was lodged in jail since December 3 following his arrest by the state CID for collecting bribes from job aspirants with the false promise of employment in Tata Motors. Police said he was taking money on behalf of Akash Pathak, son of former IFS officer Abhay Pathak, who was given compulsory retirement last month due to corruption charges. Panigrahi’s daughter was scheduled to get married to Akash in December last year at a palace hotel at Udaipur.
Once a blue-eyed boy of the chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, Panigrahy took care of CM’s assembly constituency Hinjili in Ganjam district for nearly a decade. He was first elected to Odisha assembly in 2009 from the seaside Gopalpur constituency, the seat he won thrice on a trot. In 2014, Patnaik made him the minister of the rural development, higher education and science and technology departments. He was dropped from the cabinet in 2017 but was still seen to be powerful. He was made BJD’s Ganjam district president in 2015 despite the district having 3 senior cabinet ministers. Ahead of the 2019 assembly elections, Panigrahy was given charge of 12 of the 15 assembly constituencies of the undivided Ganjam district.
{{/usCountry}}Once a blue-eyed boy of the chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, Panigrahy took care of CM’s assembly constituency Hinjili in Ganjam district for nearly a decade. He was first elected to Odisha assembly in 2009 from the seaside Gopalpur constituency, the seat he won thrice on a trot. In 2014, Patnaik made him the minister of the rural development, higher education and science and technology departments. He was dropped from the cabinet in 2017 but was still seen to be powerful. He was made BJD’s Ganjam district president in 2015 despite the district having 3 senior cabinet ministers. Ahead of the 2019 assembly elections, Panigrahy was given charge of 12 of the 15 assembly constituencies of the undivided Ganjam district.
{{/usCountry}}But he ran out of favour soon. Last year, he wrote several letters to the chief minister, demanding that Odisha bring back migrant workers from Gujarat during Covid-19 lockdown and also to complain that the state government was ignoring local MLAs in the fight against Covid-19.
After his arrest, chief minister Naveen Patnaik expelled him from the party.