A year after his arrest, Rajkumar Chaurasiya, held for the killing of his daughter for marrying against his wishes, has been granted bail recently by the Bombay High Court.
The alleged actions of Chaurasiya were gory, to say the least. On July 13, 2019, he had gone to his daughter’s house in Ghatkopar, in eastern Mumbai, had called her out and had hacked her to death with a sickle. He had then thrown her lifeless body on the footpath. There were, however, no eyewitness to this.
Earlier, he had refused to grant permission to her daughter when she and her husband wanted to visit her birthplace. He had said it would tarnish his reputation in the locality.
He was arrested two days after the murder and was charged under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
At the July 9, hearing, Chaurasiya’s advocate Ganesh Gupta, in arguing for bail, told Justice P.D. Naik that the case was based on circumstantial evidence. He said there was no cogent evidence against Chaurasiya, pointing out that while the statement mentioned that a knife was used in the crime, what was actually recovered was a sickle.
The prosecution tried to prove the motive and said that call records show that there were several calls between the father and the victim on the day of the incident.
The court said: “Undisputedly, the case is based on circumstantial evidence, and although the body was found on the footpath in Ghatkopar, there is no eyewitness. The alleged statement mentioned that the accused was willing to show the knife used in the crime, but a sickle was recovered.”
The bench said, after studying the police report on mobile tower location said it does not appear that the accused was in Ghatkopar. “The prosecution is also relying upon the call records to show there were calls between the accused and the victim. Since the deceased was his daughter, no adverse inference can be drawn with regard to such calls.”
The court said the accused cannot be detained further and a case for grant of bail is made out. Chaurasiya was released on a PR bond of ₹25,000.
– India Legal Bureau