Bhubaneswar, May 31: The Additional District and Sessions Court in Khurda has denied the bail application of Prasanta Kumar Jagadev, the Chilika MLA and BJP candidate for the Khurda Assembly seat, in connection with an EVM vandalism case.

Earlier in the day, the court had reserved its judgement after hearing the bail petition.

Senior lawyer Pitambar Acharya, representing Jagadev, argued that his client, a sitting MLA, is innocent and was arrested without an FIR. He emphasized that there was no evidence against Jagadev at the time of his arrest.

Acharya also informed the court that Jagadev was mistreated at the police station, being made to sit on the floor and denied drinking water. Furthermore, around 12:30 AM, the magistrate was awakened to forward Jagadev to court instead of granting bail at the police station, which Acharya argued was contrary to Supreme Court directives and the Criminal Procedure Code for offenses with sentences of less than seven years.

Acharya, along with 40 other advocates, submitted their vakalatnama to represent Jagadev in court. Jagadev was arrested for allegedly vandalizing an EVM at a polling station in Khurda.

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