A day after getting provisional bail from the court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate of Dhanbad, Shikha Agarwal, to cast vote in the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled on June 19, Jharkhand High Court has instructed the state government to ensure that Baghmara MLA Dhullu Mahto reaches Ranchi to participate in the polls.

The court order came on an intervention petition filed by Dhullu against the denial of provisional bail by the Dhanbad court on June 15.

Earlier, Agarwal’s court had instructed the jail administration to ensure Dhullu’s presence during the voting by granting him provisional bail but also ordered that he be brought back to the Dhanbad jail the same day.

Dhullu surrendered on May 11 in connection with a case lodged by Baghmara resident Doman Mahto, a neighbour, on February 14 in Barora police station. Doman accused the MLA, his elder brother Sarad and others of beating him and his family members and also trying to kill him with a pistol when he tried to establish a shop along with his father Kanhai Mahto near the Ramraj temple at Chitahi village in Baghmara on April 29, 2019, on his own land.

The police lodged an FIR on the basis of the complaint on February 15. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued on the basis of which police conducted a raid at Dhullu’s house, though he could not be arrested.