Orissa HC Dismisses Pe-Arrest Bail Plea Of Bengali Scribe Suman Chattopadhyay

Cuttack:  The Orissa High Court here has rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of senior Bengali journalist Suman Chattopadhyay, who has been summoned by the CBI for questioning in a chit fund scam case.

The court had earlier refused to grant bail to the 63-year-old scribe on June 17, 2021.

Chattopadhyay has been seeking anticipatory bail after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned him to appear in Bhubaneswar for interrogation in connection with his alleged links with the Sarada chit fund scam.

He had also moved the Supreme Court against the high court order. But the apex court had turned down his plea while giving him liberty to move the High Court again.

The single judge bench of Justice S Pujahari, while hearing his fresh petition on Tuesday, dismissed his plea, saying that the CBI had already emphasised the need for custodial interrogation of the petitioner. Taking note of the same, this court on an earlier occasion had dismissed his prayer for pre-arrest bail.

Noting that there has been no change in circumstance, the HC said it is not inclined to release the petitioner on pre-arrest bail, notwithstanding the liberty granted to him to re-agitate the matter by the apex court.