HC extends interim protection for Bishnupada Sethi in Bridge and Roof Company (India) Ltd bribery case
Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court (HC) on Monday extended the interim protection from “coercive action” for senior IAS officer Bishnupada Sethi until May 5 in a bribery case involving the Bridge and Roof Company (India) Ltd, a public sector undertaking (PSU).
According to Sethi’s lawyer, Debashish Kumar Panda, the HC also extended the interim protection to Sethi’s wife and daughter.
During today’s hearing of the writ petition, a division bench of Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi granted the extension of protection and scheduled the next hearing for May 5.
In their writ petition, Sethi and his family contended that the CBI had failed to recover any significant or incriminating documents during a raid on Sethi’s residence. However, the agency froze his wife’s bank account and seized his daughter’s laptop, which she used for her studies. Sethi has sought protection from what he described as undue harassment and the safeguarding of his and his family’s fundamental rights.
Sethi came under the CBI’s scrutiny after Chanchal Mukherjee, the group general manager of Bridge and Roof Company (India) Ltd, was arrested on December 8 for accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh in Bhubaneswar. Mukherjee had been caught taking the bribe from a real estate company in exchange for promising work orders. During interrogation, Mukherjee allegedly implicated Sethi, prompting the CBI to summon him for questioning.
Following this, an eight-member CBI team from Delhi raided Sethi’s government residence on February 18. However, an altercation reportedly ensued between the 1995-batch officer and CBI officials during the raid.
Sethi has consistently denied any wrongdoing, claiming he has no connections with Mukherjee and never received any favours from Bridge and Roof Company (India) Ltd. He further asserted that no formal FIR has been filed against him. On February 24, he filed a petition seeking the Court’s intervention, alleging that the CBI team was subjecting him and his family to harassment.
