The Orissa High Court on Monday will decide on a petition filed by the State government to allow the police to handcuff the arrested Dhalsamant brothers during transit under police remand.
Sushil Dhalsamant and his elder brother Sushant arrested last month for allegedly murdering two of their former associates are currently on police remand for third time that will also end on Monday.
While allowing police remand, the SDJM Court of Cuttack Sadar here has each time rejected the prayers of the investigating police officer (IO) to handcuff the accused on the ground that the reason behind the apprehension of the IO does not appear to be convincing.
Challenging the lower court order, the State government has moved the High Court in a criminal miscellaneous application stating that the SDJM court has rejected the IO’s applications “mechanically” and “cyclostyled” manner without appreciating the matter in its proper perspective.
Stating that the accused persons may be taken outside the State like Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh for the purpose of recreation of the murder scene as part of the investigation and “there is every possibility that the accused persons may escape en route”, the State government has urged the High Court to allow the police to handcuff the accused persons by setting aside the lower court order. After preliminary hearing on the State government’s application, Justice B K Nayak had issued notices to the arrested brothers directing them to show cause by Monday as to why the application should not be granted or such other order be passed as the High Court may deem fit.
In the meantime, it is learnt that the lawyer of the brothers have obtained vakalatnama from them after being permitted by the lower court to appear before the High Court on Monday.