Cuttack: In a significant development in the long-running legal battle between actor-politician Anubhav Mohanty and his ex-wife, actress Varsha Priyadarshini, the Orissa High Court has upheld the lower court’s framing of charges in a harassment case.
The ruling allows the proceedings to continue against Mohanty and his aides.
In June 2024, Special MP, MLA Court framed charges against the former Lok Sabha MP and posted the case for start of trial with depositions by witnesses from June 25 the same year.
The allegations date back to their marital disputes, which began surfacing publicly around 2020 following the breakdown of their marriage. Varsha had lodged a complaint with Purighat
police station, alleging that Anubhav and his two aides Sujit Dalei and Khagendra Prasad Sahoo locked her in a room in his house at Nandi Sahi in Cuttack on the night December 18, 2020, even as the estranged couple were locked in a divorce battle with the actress seeking restitution of conjugal rights.
A police team had then reached the house of the former parliamentarian and rescued her.
After a probe, police had filed a chargesheet naming the actor as prime accused in the case under Sections 509 (insulting modesty of woman), 498 A (cruelty), 341 (wrongful restraint), 294 (use of obscene language) and 506 (criminal intimidation) on December 18, 2023.
The court of SDJM, Cuttack, took cognizance of the case on December 20, 2023 and sent it for framing of charges and trial by the Special Court for MPs and MLAs.
Meanwhile, Anubhav scored a big victory when the Orissa High Court granted him divorce from Varsha, invalidating the order in which the Family Court, Cuttack, had rejected his petition. He received his decree of divorce in February 2024 after 10 ten years of marriage.