Written by: Express News Service
2 min readBhubaneswarMar 21, 2013 12:51 AM IST
First published on: Mar 21, 2013 at 12:51 AM IST
Former Orissa law minister and senior BJD MLA Raghunath Mohanty was left with fewer legal options as the Orissa High Court on Wednesday rejected his writ petition for quashing the FIR lodged by his daughter-in-law Barsa Swony Choudhury against him and his family members over alleged dowry torture.
Mohanty is on the run since March 14,when his daughter-in-law lodged an FIR against him,his son,wife,daughter and son-in-law. He had to resign from the Naveen Patnaik cabinet a day after the FIR was filed.
Mohanty and his family have been charged under sections 498A and 506 of Indian Penal Code and section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act over torturing Choudhury for Rs 25 lakh cash and a Scorpio SUV. His son Rajashree Mohanty has been remanded in judicial custody in Balasore town after his bail petitions were turned down by a local court there.
Mohantys son had married Choudhury in June 2012.
The senior BJD leader,who is fast turning out to be an embarrassment for the Naveen Patnaik government,had filed the writ petition under section 482 of CrPC for quashing of the FIR. He has also filed an anticipatory bail application for himself and his family members before the Orissa High Court,but the same is yet to be listed for hearing. Rejecting the petition seeking quashing of FIR,HC judge justice Raghubir Dash said it was not maintainable as prima-facie the FIR appeared to be true.
Meanwhile,the special team of Human Rights Protection Cell of Orissa Police,which is investigating the dowry case,conducted raids on the house of Mohanty at Amarda in Balasore,but had to return empty-handed. Opposition Congress and BJP have been demanding Mohantys arrest over the dowry torture allegations.
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