Cuttack, May 13: Orissa High Court today directed the Court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate in Cuttack to consider afresh the chargesheet filed by CID-Crime Branch for framing charges against self-styled spiritual leader Santosh Roul alias Sarathi Baba in the Rosaline Mallick case.

Rosaline, who was identified as a girl who had gone to Hyderabad with the self-styled spiritual leader, had alleged that she was forced to accompany Sarathi Baba and stay with him in a hotel. She was an MBBS student of SCB Medical College.

On the basis of her statement, the CID-Crime Branch had registered a case against Sarathi Baba on charges of extortion, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code. He was also charged under relevant sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Court of Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate in Cuttack had later taken cognisance of a case filed by the investigation agency in this regard in January. Sarathi Baba had challenged the lower court order by way of a revision petition in the high court.

"The single-judge bench of Justice S.N. Pujahari quashed the lower court order on the ground that there was no material for the charges under which the chargesheet was filed," Sarathi Baba's counsel Manas Chand said.

"Justice Pujahari further directed the lower court to consider afresh the evidence in the chargesheet and proceed in accordance with law", Chand said

Sarathi Baba has been in jail since his arrest on August 7 last year by the CID-Crime Branch following the surfacing of a sex scandal involving him at his Ashram at Barimula in Kendrapada.

Initially, the CID-Crime Branch had registered a case against him on charges of cheating, forgery, wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation. Later, he was also charged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act.