HC rejects bail of Mili Panda

Cuttack: The State High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of Subhashree Panda alias Mili Panda, the wife of Maoist leader Sabysachi Panda, in the Gudari police station case in Koraput district.

The single-judge bench of Justice S C Parija rejecting the bail of Mili Panda, now in police custody, asked the lower court to complete the trial of the case, lodged in 2003, as soon as possible.

The 40-year-old woman is now under police custody for the case registered against her at Gudari police station, eight years back. Her bail applications were earlier rejected by a lower court.

In October last year, Mili had got a major reprieve when the High Court quashed the cognizance taken by a Nayagarh court against her in a criminal case and ordered that the trial court should not proceed in the case further.

In the nayagarh case the High Court quashed the case against her on the ground that the sanction granted for the trial was not made in accordance with law.

Panda in her bail application for Gudari case had claimed police were keeping her in illegal confinement and her name had not figured in the related case which was registered by the Gudari police in January 2003 and charges were framed subsequently.

She had also contended that after she obtained a favourable decision from the High Court recently pertaining to the Nayagarh incident, the police tagged her with the case of 2003 and trial of other accused in the case were over since long.