The Supreme Court on Monday granted conditional bail to suspended Chilika MLA Prashant Jagdev, who had ploughed his car into a large crowd at Banpur in Khordha district on March 12.
Setting conditions, the apex court said Jagdev cannot go to his Assembly constituency for a year. He can only visit with the district Collector’s permission.
The court also ordered that Jagdev cannot conduct any meeting(s) with more than five persons at a time.
Notably, on March 12 Jagdev came to the Banpur block office for the Block Chairperson election in his Range Rover SUV when he saw a huge crowd in front of it. Instead of slowing down the vehicle, Jagdev allegedly drove it into the crowd. More than 22 people were injured in the incident.
The irate mob then dragged the dabang MLA out of the vehicle and mercilessly thrashed him with whatever they could lay their hands on. They also overturned his vehicle and damaged it. A severely bleeding Jagdev was initially admitted to the Banpur hospital and later shifted to a Bhubaneswar-based hospital. He was arrested after his discharge from the hospital on March 22.
Jagdev has been charged with serious offences like attempt to murder, obstructing police personnel from performing their duty, injuring public and using car as weapon to hurt people.
Meanwhile, Jagdev has been dismissed from the ruling BJD.