The Orissa High Court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to Satyam Roul, the 20-year-old adopted son of arrested self-styled godman Santosh Roul alias Sarathi Baba.
Satyam, heading the trust floated by Sarathi, was arrested by the State crime branch police in August this year from Mumbai on charges of cheating and receiving stolen properties.
Justice C. R. Dash allowed the bail application of Satyam asking him to cooperate with the prosecution, meet the investigating officer once in every fortnight till the end of his trial and not to go outside the State without the permission of the IO, informed Satyam’s counsel Manas Chand.
His bail applications were earlier rejected twice by two separate lower courts here.
Having no known sources of income, Satyam had a bank balance of Rs.25 lakh, he had paid around Rs.20 lakh to three of his friends to facilitate his escape from the State evading arrest after his father was arrested in the first week of August.
Satyam was also booked under section 423 and 467 of IPC for making a sale deed of only Rs.55 lakh after purchasing a flat in Bhubaneswar costing Rs.1.15 crore. The under-valuation of property during registration had caused pecuniary loss to the State exchequer, the crime branch police have alleged.
