Cuttack, Mar 20: No interim relief was granted to former law minister Raghunath Mohanty yesterday as a single judge bench of Orissa High Court took up a writ petition filed by him seeking to quash the dowry torture case filed against him.
Mohanty, who resigned yesterday, sought quashing of the criminal proceedings on the basis of an FIR registered against him and four of his family members at Balasore Town police station.
Mohanty, his wife, son and two other family members have been charged with dowry torture by his daughter-in-law Barsa Swony Choudhury.
The former minister had also approached the High Court yesterday in a miscellaneous case seeking interim protection that no coercive police action be taken against him and his family until the writ petition was disposed of.
"The miscellaneous case came up before the single judge bench of Justice Raghuvir Dash today and we have put forth our arguments stating that no case is made out against the former minister and his family members on the basis of the FIR filed by the informant," said Mohanty's counsel Milan Kanungo.
Appearing for the daughter-in-law of the former minister, advocate Smrutiranjan Mohapatra argued that the High Court should not grant any interim protection to the former minister as it was a fit case for trial on the basis of prima facie evidence collected by the prosecution.
The Human Rights Protection Cell is investigating the matter and has already arrested the husband Raja Shree Mohanty, who has been remanded in judicial custody for two weeks after his bail application was rejected by a Balasore lower court yesterday.
