Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court has granted interim bail to Chintan Raghuvanshi, the Deputy Director of Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) regional office, who had been arrested on charges of taking bribe from a businessman on May 29.

The HC granted interim bail for a period of 10 days to Raghuvanshi purely on humanitarian ground so that he can see his newborn baby and attend the family functions following the child birth.

However, Justice G. Satapathy of the Orissa HC, has asked Raghuvanshi to surrender and return to the custody immediate after the expiry of the interim bail.

Any violation in this regard will invite coercive action against the ED official, said the HC.

Raghuvanshi had initially approached the HC for interim bail on the grounds of pregnancy of his wife. But, his wife delivered a baby while the bail petition was pending in the court.

Raghuvanshi, later, urged the HC to grant him interim bail so that he can see his newborn baby.

It is worth mentioning here that the Central Bureau pf Investigation (CBI) had arrested Raghuvanshi for taking Rs 20 lakh as bribe from a businessman in the capital city here on May 29.

Raghubanshi, a 2013-batch IRS officer, had sought Rs 2 crore as bribe from the businessman by threatening him with ED raids.

The businessman had lodged a complaint in this regard with the regional office of the CBI here.

Accordingly, a trap was laid and the CBI sleuths caught Raghubanshi while taking Rs 20 lakh as bribe from the complainant in Sahid Nagar area of the city.