Bhubaneswar, Jan. 19: Police today arrested Trideeb Rout, who claims to be one of the directors of Air Odisha, a private airline operator, for allegedly forcing his wife to withdraw a dowry case lodged against him in last June.

Air Odisha today started its intra-state flight operation from Biju Patnaik International Airport, from where Rout was arrested hours after the launching ceremony. Later, a local court granted him bail.

However, Air Odisha chairman-cum-managing director Radhakanta Pani denied Rout's association with the company.

"He was never a part of the airlines. He used to come to meet some of our employees. He was nowhere involved with the affairs of the airlines," said Pani.

Rout, 36, was arrested on the basis of a complaint his wife Raj Laxmi Dash, 30, had filed yesterday. The police said Raj Laxmi had accused Rout of forcing her to withdraw a dowry case she had lodged against her husband.

"Acting on the complaint, we arrested Rout and produced him in court," said Chandrasekharpur police station inspector in charge D.S. Pratap.

However, sources said Rout had recently got an anticipatory bail from Orissa High Court in connection with the dowry case.

The police said Rout and Raj Laxmi had been married for three years after they got to know each other on a social networking site.

"He not only abused me physically, but also tortured my two-year-old son. Though I ran from pillar to post to initiate action against him, the police repeatedly told me that my husband was untraceable," Raj Laxmi had told in September. The couple also have a four-month-old daughter.

However, Rout refuted the allegations, saying that the charges levelled against him were false and fabricated.