CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday dismissed the pre-arrest bail plea of senior Bengali journalist Suman Chattopadhyay. Earlier, the court had refused to grant the bail to the 63-year-old on June 17, 2021.
Chattopadhyay has been seeking anticipatory bail after the CBI summoned him to appear in Bhubaneswar for interrogation in connection with his alleged links to the Sarada chit fund scam. He had moved the Supreme Court against the high court order. But the apex court had turned down his plea while giving him liberty to move the HC again.
However, the single judge bench of Justice S Pujahari while dismissing his plea on Tuesday said, “The CBI has already emphasised for custodial interrogation of the petitioner and taking note of the same, this court on earlier occasion had rejected his prayer for pre-arrest bail.
For the aforesaid reasons and there being no change in circumstance, this court is not inclined to release the petitioner on pre-arrest bail, notwithstanding the liberty granted to him to re-agitate the matter by the apex court.”