Sarathi Baba gets bail in cheating and assault case

The Orissa High Court on Monday granted bail to self-styled godman Sarathi Baba alias Santosh Roul in a four-year-old case of assaulting and cheating a woman and her daughter in Odisha's Kendrapara district.

With this, Roul, who was arrested in August 2015, has got bail in all the three cases registered against him by the crime branch of Odisha police.

Justice S K Sahoo allowed the bail application of Roul imposing stringent conditions.

Granting bail in the cheating case, the High Court has ordered Roul to execute bail bonds of Rs 2 lakh each by two local sureties from Barimula in Kendrapara, where he had an ashram.

Roul has been asked not to influence the victims of the case and not keep in contact with them. He has also been asked to appear in person on each date of the trial of the case.

His counsel Manas Chand hoped that Roul, lodged in Choudwar circle jail here ever since his arrest in August 2015, will walk free as he has already been granted bails by the Supreme Court and the Orissa High Court in two other cases in 2017.

Roul was first arrested for his indulgence in criminal activities and cheating people by misusing religious and spiritual practices. He was subsequently booked for issuing threats to a woman medico, who was his follower.

The Supreme Court had granted him bail in the woman medico case, while the HC had granted him bail in the first case.