Son of former Odisha minister gets bail in dowry case

After spending 20 days in jail in a case of dowry torture, Raja Shree Mohanty, son of former Odisha law minister Raghunath Mohanty, was granted bail by a local court on Friday.

District Sessions Judge V Jayashree granted bail to Raja Shree on a bond of Rs 10,000 and two sureties.

The bail was granted on the condition that Raja Shree would cooperate with the police in the investigation, not tamper with the evidence and not leave the state without permission of the court, his lawyer Niranjan Panda said.

The hearing of the bail application was postponed on Thursday as Panda wanted time to furnish certain documents.

Rajashree, who was arrested on March 17 near Cuttack for allegedly torturing his wife Barsa Swony Choudhury for dowry, was sent to jail on March 18.

Barsa who had married Raja Shree in June last year had filed an FIR at Balasore on March 14 accusing her husband and his four family members of torturing her physically and mentally for dowry.

Raghunath Mohanty had resigned from the Naveen Patnaik ministry on March 15 before going into hiding.

After being on the run for a fortnight, Mohanty and his wife were arrested from West Bengal on March 30 and brought to Balasore where they were remanded to judicial custody till April 2. They were granted bail on April 2 by the sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Balasore.