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Reprieve for Mahanti

Pradip Kumar Das

Court declines to issue NBW

CUTTACK: Putting all speculation about the imminent arrest of Orissa DGP B.B. Mahanti to rest, a sessions court of Rajasthan on Thursday turned down an application of the Rajasthan police seeking non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) against the senior IPS officer.

According to reports reaching here, the Rajasthan court refused to issue NBW against Mahanti who is facing criminal charges in Rajasthan for allegedly abetting his convicted son jumping jail parole.

The police in Rajasthan had sought the NBW against Mahanti on Tuesday after the Supreme Court's protection insulating the DGP from arrest expired on Monday. However, after three days of suspicion, the news of Rajasthan court's refusal to issue NBW against the DGP came as much-needed relief to Mahanti and to his legal counsels here who have been turning every legal document for the last five months to protect the senior police official from the embarrassing situation of being arrested for no fault of his.

Reasons

When asked about the possible reasons behind the refusal of NBW against the DGP by Rajasthan court, his counsel Ashok Mohanty said that a court can issue an NBW against an accused facing bailable offences provided the accused does not appear before the court after issuance of summons. "The DGP has never defied any court summons and if at all the court had issued an NBW it would have only for the purpose to ensure the appearance of the accused in that court but not to detain him in custody," the counsel said.

Since the charge-sheet against the DGP has not been submitted yet and no court at any point of time issued any summon to him, it was a foregone conclusion that the Rajasthan police' `mischievous' attempt to seek the NBW against the DGP was sure to be turned down by the concerned court, Mr. Mohanty said.

"Now that the DGP has made an attempt moving the Rajasthan High Court to quash the FIR filed against him at Lal Kothi police station in Rajasthan, we would wait for the outcome of that case," Mr. Mohanty said. Meanwhile, it is further learnt that the DGP is also planning to file a habeas corpus in Rajasthan High Court.

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Reprieve for Mahanti

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