Mohanty asked to move Sessions court for bail

Odisha Channel Bureau Cuttack/Bhubaneswar, 25: Orissa High Court on Thursday asked former Advocate General of Odisha to approach the appropriate Sessions Court in Bhubaneswar on Friday to seek bail in the chit fund scam case in which he has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation.Mohanty’s lawyers had approached the High Court after the former Advocate General was remanded to judicial custody by a Designated CBI court in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday evening.The High Court, however, directed Mohanty’s counsel to move the Sessions Court for hearing of their bail application on Friday.The Court also asked the CBI to produce the papers relating to the case against Mohanty in the Sessions Court during morning hours on Friday.Mohanty was produced before the CBI court on Wednesday after the expiry of his two-day CBI remand.He was remanded to judicial custody after the CBI court rejected his bail plea.Mohanty was arrested for allegedly misusing his office as Advocate General with regard to purchase of a house from Pradip Sethy, head of chit fund firm Artha Tatwa (AT) Group in Cuttack, in 2013 for a sum of one crore and one lakh rupees.The former AG was arrested from his residence in Cuttack on September 22 following his questioning by the CBI in Bhubaneswar on September 13.Meanwhile, the lawyers of Orissa High Court and many district courts, including Bhubaneswar, abstained from work on Thursday questioning the manner in which Mohanty was arrested in the case.The High Court lawyers had also resorted to cease work on Wednesday and appealed to the lawyers of the subordinate courts to join them in the protest on Thursday.The High Court lawyers will decide about their future course of action on Friday.