The Allahabad High Court has rejected the bail plea of the mother accused of murdering her three-year-old child.
A Single Bench of Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery passed this order while hearing a Criminal Misc Bail Application filed by Aarti Devi.
Applicant has approached the Court by way of filing the Criminal Misc Bail Application under Section 439 Cr.P.C in Case under Section 302 I.P.C, Police Station-Ahirauli Bazar, District – Kushinagar.
Applicant before the Court is mother of deceased (a child aged about 3 years).
According to post-mortem report, deceased has received 8 stab injuries. Applicant has self inflected two lacerated wounds, one on neck and other on left wrist. There is an eye-witness account who witnessed that applicant has taken deceased to her room and on hearing noise when witnesses reached up to room, they find deceased lying in a pool of blood and applicant has inflected injuries to herself also.
During investigation, on pointing out of applicant, knife used in crime was recovered.
During trial statement of the prosecution witness has been recorded though counsel for applicant has tried to show some contradiction but at this stage, the Court is not venturing into deep of such submission as according to the A.G.A for State, statement of prosecution witness is consistent and against the applicant.
Counsel for applicant submitted that the application is sworn by husband of applicant i.e father of deceased and mental condition of applicant is not well and in this regard an application was moved before Trial Court for her medical examination but it appears that it was not taken note of, even such argument was not considered by Trial Court while rejecting the bail application of applicant.
Counsel for applicant further submitted that the Court may pass direction that mental health of applicant may be examined.
Counsel for applicant also submitted that the applicant is behind the bars since 08.03.2023 and in case, she is released on bail, she will not misuse the liberty of bail and will cooperate in trial.
A.G.A for State submitted that in case, it is brought into notice of jail authorities appropriate treatment will be provided to applicant.
The Court observed that,
I have considered the above mentioned rival submissions in referred factual and legal background and in view of established principle of jurisprudence of bail i.e ‘bail is rule and jail is exception’ as well as relevant factors for consideration of a bail application such as (i) whether there is any prima facie or reasonable ground to believe that the accused had committed the offence; (ii) nature and gravity of the accusation; (iii) severity of the punishment in the event of conviction; (iv) danger of the accused absconding or fleeing, if released on bail; (v) character, behaviour, means, position and standing of the accused; (vi) likelihood of the offence being repeated; (vii) reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being influenced; (viii) danger of course, of justice being thwarted by grant of bail etc and that an order to grant or not to grant bail must assigned reasons (see Deepak Yadav vs State of U.P (2022) 8 SCC 559, Manoj Kumar Khokar vs State of Rajasthan and Anr (2022) 3 SCC 501, The State of Jharkhand vs Dhananjay Gupta @ Dhananjay Prasad Gupta: Order dated 7.11.2023 in SLP(Crl) No.10810/2023 and Shiv Kumar Vs The State of U.P and Ors: Order dated 12.9.2023 in Criminal Appeal No.2782 of 2023), Ramayan Singh Vs The State of Uttar Pradesh and another, 2024 SCC OnLine SC 563.
Therefore, the Court opined that it is not a fit case to grant bail to applicant mainly on following grounds:-
(a) It is a case of brutal murder by the applicant, who is a lady and a mother has caused death of her three years old son by causing multiple incised wound;
(b) Applicant has self inflected two injuries but it would not be considered at this stage that her mental health was not fit when occurrence took place;
(c) The contradiction if any, in statement of prosecution witness would be subject matter of trial and at this stage, the Court takes note of submission of the A.G.A for State that statement of a witness has to be read in whole and not in isolated manner. In this regard, the Court takes note of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court in Shahaja @ Shahajan Ismail Mohd Shaikh Vs State of Maharashtra, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 883.
Accordingly, the Court rejected the bail application.
“The Court takes note of submission in regard to mental health of applicant, therefore, it is directed that the Jail Authority will provide consultation to applicant from a Government Hospital under due process and a report thereof will also be provided to her Pairokar. Applicant will have a liberty to approach this Court along with medical health report in case, trial has not substantially proceeded within 8 months”, the order reads.