Mohanty denied bail, remanded to judicial custody

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Sep 24: Former Odisha Advocate General Ashok Mohanty, who was arrested by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the chit fund scam, was remanded to judicial custody late on Wednesday evening.A local court remanded Mohanty to judicial custody till September 30 after rejecting his petition seeking bail.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 court also denied bail to Odisha Bhaskar’ owner Madhu Mohanty and real-estate broker Dharmendra Bothra who had been earlier arrested for irregularities in their financial dealings with the AT Group.Both Mohanty and Bothra were also taken to the local jail in the Jharpada locality of the Capital city along with Mohanty.The lawyers of Orissa High Court have already resorted to cease work agitation for two-days questioning the manner in which Mohanty was arrested in the case.Lawyers of other district courts are likely to abstain from the courts on Thursday to express solidarity with the agitating High Court lawyers.The High Court lawyers will decide about their future course of action on Friday.Odisha State Bar Council had on Tuesday condemned the arrest of Mohanty and announced that they will move the appropriate court challenging the arrest.The former AG was arrested on September 22 following his questioning by the CBI on September 13.He was questioned a day after he relinquished office as Advocate General of the State Odisha as soon as the State Government accepted his resignation that he had tendered on May 17 this year.