Cuttack / Bhubaneswar, March 19: Orissa High Court today reserved its order on former minister Raghunath Mohanty’s petition seeking interim relief in the dowry torture case.

Mohanty had approached the high court seeking quashing of the FIR his daughter-in-law Barsa Sowny Choudhary had registered against him and some others for alleged torture and criminal intimidation.

The single-judge bench of Justice Raghubir Dash reserved his judgment on the plea for “interim relief” after hearing arguments from both sides.

Mohanty had sought direction to the Human Rights Protection Cell of Odisha police, which is probing the case, not to “take any coercive action” against him, his wife, daughter and son-in-law. His son Raja Shree has already been arrested and is lodged in Balasore Jail.

The complainant, Barsa, made an emotional appeal to chief minister Naveen Patnaik for justice. “I want all my tormentors behind bars,” she said.

“They used to leave me locked up at home all alone. They (the family members) should feel the same pain,” she said.

Barsa said her father-in-law, being a former minister, might be exerting pressure to evade arrest.

“But I have faith in Naveen babu,” she said.