Archana Nag Honeytrap Case: Orissa High Court Rejects Shradhanjali’s Anticipatory Bail Plea

Cuttack: In a setback to Shradhanjali Behera, a close associate of honeytrap racket mastermind Archana Nag, the Orissa High Court on Tuesday refused to grant her anticipatory bail.

Shradhanjali had moved the court seeking anticipatory bail apprehending arrest in the sex and extortion case after being named as an accused in the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The ED, which is investigating the financial transactions in the sextortion racket, has named Shradhanjali as an accused along with Archana, her husband Jagabandhu Chand and associate Khageswar Patra in the case filed under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

According to sources, the special PMLA court has issued summon to her for an appearance on January 24.

The ED submitted a 2241-page chargesheet in the Sessions Court in Bhubaneswar on January 9 in the honeytrap case.

In the chargesheet, it was mentioned that Archana blackmailed film producer Akshay Parija with the help of her associate Shradhanjali. The chargesheet also mentioned about Archana blackmailing a Nayagarh-based political leader and businessman.

The ED is investigating the financial transactions of Archana and her husband after it was ascertained that the couple has amassed property worth Rs 30 crore in a span of only four years from 2018. The couple was accused of blackmailing rich and influential persons and earning crores by trapping them in the sex racket.

Khageswar had done many bank transactions amounting to lakhs of rupees with Archana since 2017.