Odisha MLA who forced junior engineer to do sit-ups gets bail

BHUBANESWAR: A special additional district judge court here on Saturday granted bail to the BJD MLA from Patnagarh Saroj Meher. The first-time MLA had been arrested on June 24 for allegedly forcing a junior engineer (JE) to do sit-up in public while inspecting a road work at Ghaghurli in Balangir district.
The court granted the bail on Rs 25,000 surety and two guarantors. The designated court (which hears the cases of MLAs and MPs) had deferred the bail hearing on July 1 and sent him to judicial custody at Jharpada special jail. The court directed the MLA to cooperate with the investigating team.
Police in Patnagarh had arrested Meher a day before the budget session of assembly. After his bail plea was rejected, the additional district judge court in Patnagarh had sent him to judicial custody. Since cases of MPs and MLAs are heard in the designated court in Bhubaneswar, he case was shifted here. Meher had filed bail petition himself as the lawyers were on strike.
The aggrieved JE Jayakant Sabar’s wife had lodged a complaint in Patnagrah police station after the incident. It took the police 19 days to arrest Meher based on the FIR. Meher, who was picked from Nuapada, was booked under section 341, 363, 294, 323, 353, 355, 500 and 34 of IPC and 3 of SC/ST prevention of atrocity Act.
To ensure that Meher is arrested, the tribal body in Balangir had laid siege to the collector office. The Balangir collector had also asked for a report from the sub-collector on the incident. The sub-collector had submitted the report stating that the incident was true.
On June 5, Meher went on an inspection of different ongoing road works. He was accompanied by executive engineer Lokanath Mishra and Sabar to the site. People from nearby villages were also present during the inspection. The MLA found the quality of road work substandard and forced the JE to do sit-ups.