Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court has granted bail to Chintan Raghuvanshi, Deputy Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Bhubaneswar Zonal office, who the CBI had arrested in connection with a Rs 20-lakh bribery case May 24. Justice Gaurishankar Satapathy Wednesday allowed Raghuvanshi to proceed on bail on condition that the 2013-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer furnished a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh along with two solvent sureties. The court has also directed Raghuvanshi to deposit his passport and not leave the territorial jurisdiction of the trial court to curb apprehensions of flight risk as raised by the CBI counsel.
Along with Raghuvanshi, the court also granted bail to alleged middleman Bhakti Binod Behera by imposing similar conditions. While granting bail to Raghuvanshi and Behera, Justice Satpathy said after having considered submissions made by the CBI it was clear that the investigation has progressed a lot. However, the petitioners are inside the jail custody and there is no immediate prospect of trial, the court said. “The court also observed that the petitioners are in custody for more than 50 days though the minimum punishment prescribed for the offence made out by the CBI against the petitioners is just three years,” said Raghuvanshi’s counsel Lalitendu Mishra. The court also made it clear that granting bail would only secure the liberty of a person for a temporary period until the accused person is found guilty of the offence. “Bail is the rule, but jail is the exception, which follows from the right of the accused to be presumed innocent until proven guilty at the trial,” the court said.
Considering the fact that CBI never sought for any custodial interrogation of the petitioners who had cooperated in the investigation, the court, while citing the Supreme Court judgment in Satendra Kumar Antil (supra) Vs CBI case of 2020, said the accused can be released safely on personal bond if the court is satisfied that he has roots in the community, and is not likely to abscond.
