Cuttack: The Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) Court on Thursday afternoon granted bail to senior Congress leader and Cuttack Nagar Congress president Mohammad Moquim and 16 party workers.
They were arrested by the Commissionerate Police earlier in the day for ransacking Puri Ghat police station on September 11.
The court granted bail to Moquim against a bail bond of Rs 20,000 and a surety.
“I had trust in our judicial system which has vindicated my innocence. The truth has finally prevailed,” Moquim told mediapersons.
Claiming that the police had arrested him with a grudge by the order of the state government to ward off the attention of the people from the expulsion of senior BJD leader Damodar Rout from the party, he said that his fight against injustice will continue.
In his statement, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik said it seems that the police had arrested Moquim due to the pressure from the ruling party.
Stating that the commissionerate police had recently assaulted a High Court lawyer in broad daylight in Cuttack city, he urged the police not to spoil the congenial atmosphere of Cuttack which is known across the state as the city of brotherhood.
Notably, the Congress workers, protesting against the arrest of one of their members who tried to barge into the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) office during the ‘Bharat Bandh’ on September 10, had ransacked the Purighat Police Station the following day.
Following the incident, the commissionerate police on Wednesday night had picked up Moquim, three Congress corporators and detained as many as 24 Congress workers on Wednesday of whom 24 were arrested on Thursday.
