Trouble mounted further for arrested Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahi as a woman of Gandhinagar here has alleged that he instigated her to file a false rape case against Sanakhemundi Congress MLA Ramesh Jena in 2016.
The woman met the Brahmapur SP on Monday and apprised him regarding the matter. Panigrahi had promised her to provide a job to her daughter in the Tata Motors and asked her to lodge the rape case against Jena in return of the favour, she alleged.However, Panigrahi didn’t keep his promise and duped her, she added.
The Brahmapur SP advised the woman to lodge a complaint in this regard with the Crime Branch police as the agency is currently probing into Panigrahi’s alleged involvement in duping jobseekers.
Notably, Panigrahi, who is expelled from the BJD, was arrested by the Crime Branch on December 3 under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 469, 471, 120-B of IPC and Section 66C/66D of IT Act.
Evidences came to light that Panigrahi collected money from people on behalf of Akash Pathak, son of suspended IFS officer Abhay Pathak, on the false promise of providing jobs in the Tata Motors. Akash Pathak and Panigrahi have duped many job aspirants of huge amount of money, Crime Branch ADG Soumendra Priyadarshi recently said. Pathak, who was slated to marry the daughter of Panigrahi, had impersonated himself as Managing Director in-charge of the Tata Motors Limited.