Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's elder brother Soumendra, booked by Odisha Police last week on charges of 'irregularities' in his cooking gas agency at Talcher, was today granted interim protection by Orissa High Court.
Justice Debabrata Dash, taking up an anticipatory bail application, ordered the vigilance wing not to arrest Soumendra until further orders and asked the prosecution to submit the case diary in the high court within two weeks.
During a series of surprise raids in petrol and cooking gas depots, the vigilance sleuths had booked Soumendra and three other employees of his agency under several sections of IPC, Essential Commodities Act and Indian Explosives Act.
The vigilance sleuths had detected shortage of 40 filled gas cylinders in Soumendra's agency. The missing cylinders, issued in the names of different consumers, were allegedly sold to a nearby godown owner without any valid documents, it was alleged.
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