Threat To Unleash Dogs On Journalist: Orissa HC Grants Anticipatory Bail To Former Minister Raghunandan Das

Cuttack: Orissa High Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to former Minister Raghunandan Das in a case filed by a woman journalist accusing him of unleashing dogs on her last month.

The HC ordered Das to appear before the lower court to get anticipatory bail in the case.

Das, a former Minister of Information and Public Relations in the BJD government, had moved the High Court after the police initiated an investigation in this case.

According to sources, Twin City Commissionerate Police registered a case under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294 (utterance of obscene words), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC on the basis of a complaint lodged by the journalist.

Chinmayee Sahoo, a journalist with a TV channel, accused Das of releasing his dogs on her when she entered his official residence with permission for capturing some visuals of demolition of unauthorised construction in neighbouring premise, belonging to BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das.