Judgment

S.K. Sahoo, J.

“What light is to the eyes- what air is to the lungs- what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.”

-Robert Green Ingersoll

The petitioner who is a sitting M.L.A. of Banki Assembly Constituency in the Odisha Legislative Assembly has approached this Court in an application under section 438 Cr.P.C. apprehending arrest in connection with CBI/SCB/KOL Case No.RC. 47/S/2014 - Kol. dated 5.6.2014 registered under sections 120-B, 294, 341, 406, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506 read with section 34 Indian Penal Code and section 3,4 and 5 of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 which arises out of Kharvelnagar P.S. Case No. 44 dated 7.2.2013.

As it appears the aforesaid Kharvelnagar P.S. Case No.44 of 2013 was instituted on the First Information Report submitted by one Sri Sukumar Panigrahi before the Inspector-in-charge, Kharvelnagar Police Station, Bhubaneswar on 7.2.2013 and the case was registered under sections 420,120-B and 406 Indian Penal Code against 13 accused persons namely Pradeep Sethy, Manoj Pattnaik, Lakhia Sahoo, Satyabrat Padhi, P.K. Swain, Krushna Padhi, Sambit Lenka, Ashok Kar, Jhuma Chakrabarti, Partha Sarathi Mohapatra, Mr