HC Quashes Criminal Proceedings Against Odisha Minister

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has quashed proceedings in a criminal case against senior BJD leader and Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain in connection with the 2016 train-obstructing incident.

The single judge bench of Justice Gourishankar Satapathy invalidated the criminal proceedings pending against Swain in Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court, Angul, as cognisance of the alleged offence was taken after the statutory period of two years. “Since cognisance of offence after the statutory period is otherwise an abuse of process of court and to secure the ends of justice, the impugned order taking cognisance of offence together with the criminal proceeding being unsustainable, is required to be quashed,” the court observed on Monday.

While the Athagarh MLA along with his supporters had obstructed the movement of trains on August 3, 2016, opposing construction of barrage over the Mahanadi in his constituency by Chhattisgarh government, Railway police registered a case against him under Section 174 (a) of the Railway Act, 1989, on July 9, 2019.

While Dhenkanal police initiated criminal proceedings before the court of JMFC, Sundargarh, which took cognisance of the offence, the case was later transferred to JMFC, Angul, after it was notified to try cases relating to MPs and MLAs for offences connected to Dhenkanal and some other districts.

In 2021, Swain moved the HC, which observed that the JMFC, Sundargarh, simply took cognisance of offence and issued process against the accused petitioner ignoring his valuable right which cannot be rectified.