Indus Valley Times

By Nalini Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 3: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch on Thursday evening picked up expelled BJD leader and Gopalpur MLA from Gopalpur, Pradeep Panigrahi, from his residence in connection with some illegal money transactions.

Minutes after he was picked up, the lawmaker was declared arrested for cheating youths on the pretext of giving jobs in Tata Steel company.

Crime Branch sources said the lawmaker was booked under various Sections  419, 420, 467, 468, 469, and 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code.

According to the lawmaker’s wife Sujata Panigrahi, some people who came in four vehicles arrived at their official residence in the evening and identified themselves as sleuths from the Crime Branch EOW.

“They took away my husband from our residence in Bhubaneswar and I’m afraid they might harm him. Without any notice or warrant, they picked up my husband. Is my husband is a Maoist or a terrorist that he’s been ill-treated by the officials?” questioned Sujata.

She added, “if the government had shown the same alacrity in case of Naxals the problem would not have existed by now.”

Sujata further expressed threat to her husband life as she was unable to locate him at the EOW office.

“If anything happens to my husband, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will be responsible for that,” she said.

“What is the reason behind the officials taking away my husband, who is a sitting MLA, to an undisclosed place for questioning. He (Pradeep Panigrahi) is being targeted and harassed intentionally by a coterie who has surrounded the CM for power,” Sujata added.

The lawmaker, who was once considered  as the blue-eyed boy of CM Naveen Patnaik, was recently expelled from the party for his links with suspended IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak and his son Akash Pathak. The Pathak father and son duo was arrested on November 27 by state Vigilance sleuths for amassing huge wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.