Delhi High Court refuses anticipatory bail to woman whose daughter-in-law died in a fall

The Delhi High Court has denied granting anticipatory bail to the mother-in-law of the deceased woman who allegedly died after falling from the top floor of her residential house and succumbed to injuries sustained. 

A single-judge bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait said, 

“Keeping in fact that the injuries sustained by the deceased were ante mortem, coupled with the fact that investigation in this case is in progress and petitioner is evading interrogation, I am of the view that to unearth the truth, custodial interrogation of petitioner may be required and, therefore, petitioner does not deserve protection from arrest.” 

According to the allegations levelled against the petitioner/mother-in-law, it was said she didn’t allow her daughter-in-law to cook and she raised the issue with her husband. Thereafter, her daughter-in-law was pushed from the top floor and succumbed to the injuries sustained. In her defence, the mother-in-law submitted that since there were two kitchens, there was no possibility of dispute over cooking of food and since the co-accused had already been granted bail, she also deserved a similar concession. 

An FIR was registered under Sections 498A/304B/406/34 IPC at the police station Madhu Vihar, Delhi against the mother-in-law of the deceased who had sought anticipatory bail on parity as other co-accused were granted anticipatory bail by the court of Sessions. 

The respondents/State submitted its status report after directions of the Court and strongly objected the bail application. It was stated there was only one kitchen in the house and one LPG gas stove and LPG cylinder only. There was another LPG gas stove and cylinder found near the room of the deceased too. But since day one, the petitioner/mother-in-law evaded the investigation and when the investigation officer visited her house she never found her at home and neither did she join the investigation till date. 

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The Court noted as per the Status report, two kitchens were not there in the house, as stated by the counsel for the petitioner but two cooking arrangements were made. The Court dismissed the anticipatory bail application with a view that custodial interrogation of the petitioner may be required to unearth the truth.