CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Friday refused to grant pre-arrest bail to former BJD minister Raghunandan Das in connection with the case of letting his dogs loose on a woman journalist at his residence on June 26. The case had been registered against him at the Capital police station of Bhubaneswar.
However, the high court directed the court of Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM), Bhubaneswar, before which the case is pending to grant him bail if he surrenders before it and seeks bail.
The case was registered on the basis of the woman journalist Chinmayee Sahoo’s complaint that Das had let loose his dog at her when she had gone to his official residence on June 26. The former Information & Public Relation minister had filed an anticipatory bail petition in high court.
While disposing of the Das’s anticipatory bail plea, the single judge bench of Justice AK Mohapatra said, “Considering the nature of allegation, gravity of offence and the fact of the case, I am not inclined to grant pre-arrest bail to the petitioner.”
However, if the petitioner surrenders before the the trial court within a period of four weeks and moves bail, the court shall release him on bail, he said.