Raghuvanshi, a 2013-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was arrested by CBI on 30 May last for allegedly accepting Rs 20 lakh bribe from a quarry owner and businessman Ratikanta Rout.
High Court Of Orissa
The Orissa High Court has granted ten-day interim bail to Chintan Raghuvanshi, Deputy Director of the Enforcement Directorate’s regional office, who was arrested by the CBI on bribery in May last, to enable him to see his newborn baby observing that “the birth experience of a child in a family more particularly the bond of father to new born baby cannot ordinarily be expressed in words”.
The Single Bench judge, Justice G Satapathy, granting bail to the ED officer on humanitarian grounds, said the petitioner is neither a hardened criminal nor is there any material to suggest that he would abscond; rather, he is a Central Government employee.
Advertisement
Raghuvanshi, a 2013-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was arrested by CBI on 30 May last for allegedly accepting Rs 20 lakh bribe from a quarry owner and businessman Ratikanta Rout.
Advertisement
Since the wife of the petitioner has delivered a baby child, at least on humanitarian grounds, the petitioner-father should be allowed to meet his child, since he is in confinement, the petitioner’s counsel argued.
The prosecution counsel highlighted that it would not be proper to grant interim bail to the petitioner, merely because his wife has delivered a baby, who is found to be healthy, and there is no complication in the delivery.
“What would be the emotion of a father to a newborn child can only be experienced in the circumstance, since a child is a gift of God.
The birth experience of a child in a family itself can be deeply personal with very emotional responses for all the family members, more particularly the bond of father to newborn baby cannot ordinarily be expressed in words”, Justice Satapathy observed in the judgment.
The petitioner-Chintan Raghuvanshi, is, however, advised to surrender to custody immediately after expiry of the interim bail, failing which the Court in session is at liberty to take coercive steps to commit the petitioner to prison, the order concluded.
Advertisement
