The Allahabad High Court has recently dismissed the bail plea of a man booked for abetting his wife’s suicide while noting that only providing medical assistance to his wife would not go to absolve him from allegations against him.
A single-judge bench of Justice Rahul Chaturvedi passed this order while hearing a criminal misc bail application filed by Sameer Ali Khan. In this case, an FIR had been lodged by one Adil (brother of the deceased) on January 15, 2020, against the applicant and Rajni Singh Thakur u/s 498A, 304B I.P.C. and Section ¾ of D.P. Act.
The informant’s sister got married about six months ago according to Muslim rites and she was subject to cruel treatment with regard to additional dowry by her husband and in-laws.
She used to share her woeful story of such atrocities faced by her
with her mother. On January 13, 2020, after hatching a conspiracy, the accused persons administered her some poisonous substance and killed her.
After registering the case, the police started an investigation into the matter and it was borne out during the investigation that alleged allegations of additional dowry were incorrect and thereafter, after collecting the material the police has changed the texture of the case and submitted the report u/s 173 (2) of Cr.P.C. only for the offence u/s 306 I.P.C. dropping all sections in which the FIR was initially registered.
The Court noted that the continued course of conduct of the man where he did not even permit his wife to see her son, had proven acute nostalgia for her and in that stage of severe psychological turmoil, she was left with no other option but to take this extreme step.
The Court observed that witness Shabnam (sister of the deceased) alleged that about three days back the deceased had called her and expressed her desire to meet his son and had said that the applicant/her husband was physically torturing her and not permitting her to meet her son.
The Court also noted that co-accused Rajni Singh has admitted that on January 13, 2020 the deceased was insisting to bring back her son who is staying with Islam, her erstwhile husband.
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When her demand was severely resisted by the applicant, the deceased consumed some poisonous substance.
It is the applicant, who carried the deceased to the District Hospital Moradabad and thereafter Sunrise Hospital and while she was shifting to Tirthankar Medical University, she died enroute.
“This by itself might have given an emotional jerk and jolt to a mother who cannot even meet or see his son. Assessing or visualizing from the side of the mother, who is said to be the first and the most sensitive person towards her child, she was not even permitted by her own husband, with whom she has got married barely four months back,” the Court said.
The Court further observed,
“With this cruel treatment of her husband, the deceased must have suffered from psychological, emotional and sentimental jerk and in this stage of mental turmoil, she has taken this extreme step.”
The Court stated that the offence of abetment may be committed directly but the same can also be accomplished by creating such circumstances which may amount to abetment.
“The applicant prima facie seems guilty of committing extreme cruelty towards his wife and because of her intense affection towards her son, he conducted and behaved in such a manner incessantly that there was no other option left for the deceased-wife than to take such extreme step”.
-the order reads.
Under circumstances, I do not find any good reason to exercise my power u/s 439 Cr.P.C., accordingly, the bail application stands rejected.