Dharmendra Pradhan's brother granted anticipatory bail in vigilance case

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court today granted conditional anticipatory bail to Soumendra, the elder brother of Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in the vigilance case over alleged black marketing and adulteration of cooking gas by the agency in Talcher owned by him.

The court has asked Soumendra to cooperate with the probe team during course of investigation, his counsel Dharanidhar Nayak said.

A day after Vigilance registered a case against him and three others– his manager Rasmikanta Mohapatra, godown in-charge Nilu Sahu and Debraj Panda, Soumendra had moved the court seeking anticipatory bail on January 16.

The anti graft agency had raided Pradhan's gas filling station in January. The  vigilance team in association with civil supplies department had conducted raids at several petrol pumps across Odisha for suspected adulteration.