24-05-2025
Orissa HC's bail condition for woman in cheating case: Clean bank branch every day for 2 months
The Orissa High Court has set an unusual bail condition for a woman accused in a cheating case – for two months, she must clean the premises of a bank.
The suspect, Manogyan Patnaik, was arrested by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch on February 5 under various sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code for a loan she had taken in 2018.
According to court documents, the woman and her co-borrower had taken three loans of a total of Rs 1.05 crore from a Cuttack branch of ICICI Bank. For this, the suspects mortgaged three residential properties in Bhubaneswar. But before all three loans were foreclosed, the woman's co-borrower sold one of the mortgaged properties to a third person, who immediately filed a complaint with the bank.
While granting her bail on May 13, the Orissa High Court set the woman three bail conditions, one of which was to clean the bank premises. The bail came on a petition that the woman had moved in court.
'The petitioner shall approach the ICICI Bank, Link Road Branch, Cuttack and clean the bank premises during the morning hours between 8:00 am to 10:00 am for a period of two months,' reads the court order passed by Justice S K Panigrahi. The order adds that the inspector-in-charge of the police station under which the branch falls would supervise the work.
Meanwhile, the case is still pending before the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) court in Cuttack.
