Police in BJD MP Anubhav Mohanty's house after distress call from estranged wife

A police team rushed to BJD MP Anubhav Mohanty's house here on Monday following a distress call by his estranged wife Varsha Priyadarshini, who has filed a case of domestic violence against him, a senior police official said.

Varsha is now fighting a legal battle against her husband and has approached different courts alleging domestic violence and sought restitution of conjugal rights.

The police team was headed by a woman police inspector, Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Pratik Singh said. The caller identified herself and told the police that there were a number of people in the house and that she was uncomfortable in the presence of some of them. She expressed confidence after seeing the police but refused to take any police protection," he said.

There is also no police deployment in the house, he added. Anubhav Mohanty, an actor-turned-politician who represents Kendrapara in the Lok Sabha, has filed a divorce suit in a New Delhi court July 7 this year under section 13 (i)(a) of the Hindu Marriage Act seeking dissolution of his marriage with Varsha.

The couple had tied the knot six years ago and has no children. Meanwhile, two courts in Cuttack Monday adjourned hearings on separate petitions filed by Varsha, herself an Odia film actor, against her husband.

Varsha has filed petitions at the sub-divisional judicial magistrate court and another in the family court. In the SDJM court, she lodged a case of domestic violence against her husband.

She had filed the case Cuttack under Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act and the SDJM court has sought the report of the protection officer. It posted the case for hearing again on October 12.

She had also moved the Cuttack district family court under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, in which the actress as an aggrieved party has sought a decree of restitution of conjugal rights. It too was adjourned to October 14 as the petitioner sought some more time to rectify the petition.

The BJD MP speaking to a group of journalists near his residence said that his personal and domestic problems with his wife, which could not be settled at home have now become lawsuits in courts of law and are his personal problems and they have nothing to do with politics.

The opposition BJP has intensified its stir against the Kendrapara MP and demanded his resignation on moral grounds.

We place the demand before the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to expel the anti-woman MP from his party, BJP Mahila Morcha state president Smruti Patnaik told reporters in Bhubaneswar.

We do not want to interfere in anybody's personal life. But, we are compelled to launch an agitation as a lawmaker has been accused of perpetrating domestic violence and allegedly torturing his wife, she said.

The women wing of the saffron party also held demonstrations in Cuttack and Kendrapara demanding resignation of the MP.

The ball is now in the chief ministers court. Let him give justice to a woman allegedly being tortured by his party MP, the BJP leader said.