Overview

• Orissa High Court on July 28 vacated its July 3 interim protection and rejected Bishnupada Sethi’s anticipatory bail plea, enabling the CBI to resume coercive actions.
• Justice V. Narasingh cited prima facie material linking the 1995-batch IAS officer to a ₹10 lakh bribe tied to contract awards by the Bridge and Roof Corporation.
• CBI investigators presented voice-sample evidence matching calls arranging the bribe and recovered the cash from a car owned by middleman Debadutta Mohapatra.
• Sethi was removed as principal secretary of the SC/ST department in December and made an officer on special duty after the agency arrested PSU executive Chanchal Mukherjee.
• The ruling reinforces the judiciary’s stance that pre-arrest bail cannot impede probes into high-level corruption allegations.