The Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) Court on Saturday granted bail to the seven Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan activists who had intercepted Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy’s car at Balia store on Cuttack- Machhagaon State Highway, protesting farmer’s suicides in State.
They would be released on Sunday, informed Krushak Sangathan Jagatsinghpur district convener Rashmi Ranjan Swain.
Reports said that Minister Maharathy faced protests while he was returning from Ghadimula near Jagatsinghpur after attending a Children’s Day celebration held there on November 14. All of a sudden, the Krushak Sangathan activists waylaid Minister’s car at Balia store and demanded financial assistance to the deceased’s kin.
later, police overpowered the agitators and arrested seven of them after freeing the Minister’s car. The police registered cases against them, identified as Pabitra Mohan Nayak, Snehansu Jena, Dhurjhhati Mohanty, Sarat Chaandra Mohapatra, Pramod Das, Surendra Moharan and Ravindra Sahoo, under Sections 143, 149,332 and 506 IPC and forwarded them to the court. The court had sent them to Alipingala jail on November 16. Hundreds of activists gathered near SDJM Court premises and near the Alipingala sub jail area to receive the seven persons.