IMPORTANT POINT
The main legal point established in the judgment is the significance of considering prima facie evidence, nature and gravity of the charge, and the credibility of witnesses in bail applications, along with the importance of medical evidence in evaluating the prosecution's case.

JUDGMENT

Vikas Mahajan, J. - The present petition has been filed under Section 439 CrPC seeking grant of regular bail in connection with FIR No. 377/2017 under Section 306 IPC registered at P.S. Daryaganj (Subsequently charge sheet was filed under Sections 306/201/498A/302 IPC.

2. The case of prosecution is that on 26.07.2017, information was received from GTB Hospital that Shama w/o Rihan (Petitioner) has been admitted in hospital in unconscious condition who has been declared brought dead. When the police reached the Hospital, the doctor gave the MLC No. A-5475/2017 of deceased to the police in which it was written that patient declared brought dead in casualty on 12:15 am on 26.07.2017. It revealed that there were ligature marks on the neck of deceased.

3. During investigation, the IO recorded the statement of the father of deceased, namely, Nasiruddin in which he revealed that the deceased was not his biological daughter but she was adopted and the deceaseds real father is his brother. After that biological parents of the deceased were called and the biological father of the deceased, namely, Chaman Khan, made a statement under Section161 CrPC that the when the deceased and her brother were young, she was adopted by Nasiruddin as he did not have any offspring. The deceased was married to the petitioner. After the marriage, the deceased used to come to his home and would complain that her husband would torture her for money. When the deceased would refuse to bring money, then the petitioner used to threaten her that if she did not bring money then he will leave her and perform another marriage.

4. Thereafter, during the course of investigation, the IO obtained the Post Mortem Report No. 1123/2017 from the hospital in which doctor had opined the cause of death as asphyxia as a result of antemortem hanging and time since death is about half a day.

5. Sequel to above the statements of children as well as of the neighbor of the deceased, were recorded. The daughter of the petitioner in her statement under Section 164 CrPC stated that when at 10:30 p.m. she went upstairs her father was telling her deceased mother that he will kill her. The son of the petitioner in his statement under Section 164 CrPC stated that he saw the petitioner strangulating the deceased.

6. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in his statement, Chaman Khan / PW-1, who is the biological father of the deceased, stated that he had not made any complaint of dowry demand by the petitioner to any authority. Likewise, the biological mother of the deceased, who was examined as PW-5, stated in her testimony that she had not told anyone about the cruelty of the petitioner, but the adoptive father, namely, Chaman Khan, who has been examined as PW-2, in his testimony has stated that the biological mother of the deceased told him that petitioner had asked for Rs. 5 lacs when he had visited them on the occasion of Eid. He submits that the FIR in question came to be registered at the instance of PW-2, with an allegation that petitioner had been demanding money but the testimony of PW-2 shows that his statement with regard to demand of money is only hearsay.

7. He further submits that the statement of the children of the petitioner and deceased, under Section 164 CrPC came to be recorded after about 46 days of the incident, when the said children were in the care and custody of maternal grandparents after the death of the deceased, therefore, the same cannot be taken on the face value as there is a strong possibility of the children/witnesses being tutored.

8. He submits that there is not even a single complaint of cruelty or dowry made against the petitioner as it is evident from the statements of the biological parents of the deceased.

9. He contends that the Post mortem report of the deceased also indicates that the cause of death to be asphyxia as a resul