Bhubaneswar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday framed charges against the accused person, namely Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi, Akash Kumar Pathak, and V Sarveswar Rao, under Sections 419/ 420/ 467/ 468/ 469/ 471/ 120-B IPC, r/w Section- 66-C/ 66-D of Information Technology Act-2000 in the court of JMFC, Bhubaneswar, in connection with a case registered against them at the Crime Branch Cyber Crime police station on September 23, 2020.
The case was registered on the written report of one Trilochan Mohanty, Deputy General Manager-Ethics of Tata Motors Ltd, Jamshedpur, against Akash Kumar Pathak for allegedly committing forgery by impersonating himself as the MD (I/c), Passenger Division, Tata Motors Ltd, and thereby cheating innocent people in the name of giving job in Tata Motors. It was alleged in the said written report that the accused Akash used the logo of TML and Tata Group without any authority and also the brand name of the company and collected money from the gullible job aspirants to provide them service in TML.
The accused also used fake visiting cards with official details i.e. “Akash Kumar Pathak, TAS, VP-Administration, 1st Floor, JRD Administrative Block, Tata Motors Ltd., Telco Road, Pimpri, Pune -411018”. His e-mail id and contact numbers are “akashpathak@tatamotors.com and 9556968888/7077608883”. He also used the ID card mentioning the employee ID No. 88176 projecting himself as MD of Tata Motors.
Acting on the complaint of Trilochan Mohanty, a case was registered at the Cyber Crime police station on September 23, 2020, under Sections 419/ 420/467/468/469/471 IPC r/w Section 66-C/ 66-D IT Act-2000.
During investigation, it is well made out that, Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi, (57), son of Late Somnath Panigrahi, Village Court Peta under Berhampur police limits in Ganjam district; Akash Kumar Pathak (28), son of Abhay Kanta Pathak, resident of Qtr. No.5R-1/1, Ananda Bazar, Unit IX, Bhubaneswar, Khurda; and V Sarveswar Rao, (70), son of Late V Gobinda Rajul, residing at Bidyanagar, under Berhampur Sadar police limits in Ganjam district, entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit the offence of cheating by creating forged electronic records and documents in the form of E-mails and visiting cards projecting accused Akash Kumar Pathak as MD (I/c), Tata Motors, with the purpose to collect a huge amount of money from innocent job aspirants on the pretext of providing job in Tata Motors and committed offenses under Sections 419/ 420/ 467/ 468/ 469/ 471/ 120-B IPC, r/w Sec- 66-C/66-D of Information Technology Act-2000.
The I.O. arrested the accused Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi on 3.12.2020 and the accused V Sarveswar Rao on 17.12.2020 and forwarded them to the Court of SDJM, Bhubaneswar. Akash Kumar Pathak has been remanded in this case on 7.12.2020.
After completion of the investigation, the IO submitted final chargesheet on 10.02.2022, under Sections 419/ 420/ 467/ 468/ 469/ 471/ 120-B IPC, r/w Sections 66-C/66-D of Information Technology Act-2000 against Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi, Akash Kumar Pathak and V Sarveswar Rao in the Court of JMFC, Bhubaneswar, to stand their trial in the court of law.
