Dhanbad: The MP-MLA special court in Dhanbad on Monday granted anticipatory bail to Dumri MLA Jairam Mahato and three others in a case registered at the Barwadda police station. It also granted anticipatory bail to Sushil Mandal, Rajkumar Mandal, and Mahendra Sao, bringing relief to all four accused in the case.MLA Jairam allegedly had a heated phone conversation with officer in-charge of the Barwadda police station Ravi Kumar on August 24. OC Ravi Kumar registered a case against MLA Jairam, Sushil, Rajkumar, and Mahendra, besides around 50-60 unidentified persons.The accused approached the Dhanbad district and sessions court for bail. Their petitions were transferred to the MP-MLA Special Court.The court had sought the case diary while hearing the anticipatory bail pleas filed by Mahato and the other accused. The court had also declined to grant interim protection from arrest at an earlier stage of the proceedings.Police submitted the case diary before the court. After examining the case records and hearing arguments from both the accused and the prosecution on Thursday, the Special Judge fixed Sep 14 for pronouncing the order.Appearing for the accused, senior advocate S Shahnawaz Mallik had sought protection from arrest, while additional public prosecutor Satendra Nath Rai opposed the plea. Following the arguments, the court directed police to produce the case diary before taking a final decision.The case had also triggered a controversy over an audio recording involving Mahato and the Barwadda police station in-charge. Mahto claimed that he had spoken to the officer for around 11 minutes and questioned why only about two minutes of the conversation had been released.A separate FIR was also registered against Mahato and others following a complaint by the son of a village mukhiya.The matter had been taken up by the Jharkhand Police Association, which had announced a phased agitation from Sep 8. However, following the sudden death of Jharkhand minister Sudivya Kumar Sonu, the association postponed the proposed agitation as the state went into mourning.
