BackOdisha IFS officer, son arrested in ₹9.35 crore disproportionate asset case
The court of the Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar remanded the father-son duo to judicial custody till 9 DecemberAccordingly, a case under several sections of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, has been registered against Pathak and his son
PremiumThe Odisha Government on Friday suspended Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Abhay Kant Pathak from service after he along with his son Akash were arrested by the anti-corruption vigilance in a disproportionate asset case.
Pathak, currently serving as the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Plan, Program and Afforestation, Odisha, was arrested along with his son Akash Kumar Pathak in connection with the DA case.
The court of the Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar remanded them to judicial custody till 9 December after the rejection of their bail application.
Accordingly, a case under several sections of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, has been registered against Pathak and his son.
The 1987 batch IFS officer was found in possession of disproportionate assets to the tune of ₹9.35 crore beyond his known sources of income. This amount was about 435% of the total income from all his known sources, an official statement said.
Since huge cash deposits have been made in private banks through deposit slips and ATM counters and high value transactions have been made in the accounts by the father-son duo, details of operations of the banks concerned in this regard are being probed, it added.
Details of their income tax returns, investments in shares, mutual funds and other market instruments are also being ascertained by the officials. The aspects of benami transactions and properties are also being looked into.
Vigilance sleuths conduct simultaneous searches
Before nabbing the IFS officer and his son, vigilance sleuths had made simultaneous searches at five places in Bhubaneswar, seven places in Mumbai and Pune and one place in Bihar on 25 and 26 November on the strength of search warrants issued by Court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar.
During the raids, they recovered ₹50 lakh in cash from Abhay Kant Pathak's nephew, ₹20 lakh from his driver, gold ornaments weighing 800 gm and documents relating to purchase of gold jewellery worth ₹23 lakh, the statement said.
Expensive cars and motorbikes have been found registered in the name of his son, the statement said.
IFS officer took 20 chartered flights during lockdown
The vigilance sleuths found that the officer and his family had made around 20 trips to different cities across India through chartered planes at an expenditure of more than ₹3 crore during the lockdown.
Bills worth ₹90 lakh at Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, two luxury flats in Pune, one farm house in Pune taken on rent, Mercedes, BMW and Tata Harrier in the name of Akash Pathak in Bhubaneswar were also found.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Pathak’s son Akash was allegedly cheating people of money, promising to get them jobs at Tata Motors by falsely claiming to be a managing director at Tata Motors. The firm in May had complained with the CID against Akash, accusing him of committing cheating, forgery and impersonating as the MD of the company.
In view of expanding the scope of the investigation, Odisha Vigilance has formed a 20 member Special Investigation Team for further interrogations in this case.
With agency inputs
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