The husband of a deceased in a dowry death case has a different degree of responsibility towards her and may not be entitled to bail even if other co-accused persons have been granted bail.

Court No. - 82

Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 36646

of 2022

Applicant :- Man Singh

Opposite Party :- State of U.P.

Counsel for Applicant :- Raj Karan Yadav

Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.

Hon'ble Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I,J.

Heard Sri Raj Karan Yadav, learned counsel for the

applicant, Sri Ravi Prakash Bhatt, learned A.G.A. for the

State and perused the entire record.

The instant application for bail has been moved on

behalf of the applicant, Man Singh with the prayer to

enlarge him on bail in F.I.R./ Case Crime No.238 of 2021,

under Sections 498A, 304B I.P.C. and Sections 3/4

Dowry Prohibition Act, Police Station Bisanda, District

Banda, during pendency of the trial.

Learned counsel for the applicant has submitted that

the first information report is based on false and

fabricated facts. The accused/ applicant is innocent who

has been falsely implicated in this case because of the

fact that the accused/ applicant happens to be husband

of the deceased.

His further submission is that the allegations of alleged

demand of dowry and treating the deceased with

cruelty are false and have been levelled in order to rope

in the present applicant. He has also submitted that

initially the first information report came to be lodged

against eight named persons. However, charge sheet

came to be filed against three persons, namely,

Veshnia, who is mother-in-law of the deceased, Shiv

Bhawan, who is father-in-law of the deceased and the

present applicant, Man Singh who is the husband of the

deceased, which shows that the prosecution story was

partly false. He has further submitted that the innocent

applicant is languishing in jail since 16.09.2021 who has

no previous criminal history. Therefore, he has prayed

to get the applicant on bail.

Per contra, learned A.G.A. for the State has vehemently

opposed the prayer for grant of bail by submitting that

the present applicant was married to the deceased on

22.05.2017. The deceased had died an unnatural death

within seven years of her marriage with the present

applicant. Drawing attention of this Court to the

postmortem report, he has submitted that, though, the

cause of death of the deceased has been reported to be

asphyxia due to antemortem hanging, however, there

are six injuries of different nature reported on her

person which reveals that she was physically assaulted

before her death. Though, the other co-accused

persons, namely, Veshnia, who is mother-in-law of the

deceased, Shiv Bhawan, who is father-in-law of the

deceased, have been grated bail, however, the present

applicant is husband who had a different degree of

responsibility towards the deceased to look after and to

take care for the deceased.

He, thus, submits that keeping in view the heinous

nature of offence and the manner of commission of

offence, the applicant is not entitled to be enlarged on

bail.

Having heard the learned counsel for the applicant,

learned A.G.A. for the State and upon perusal of record,

it transpires that the deceased was married to the

present applicant on 22.05.2017. There are allegations

of demand of dowry and treating the deceased with

cruelty soon before her death by the accused persons

including the present applicant, who is the husband of

the deceased. There are six injuries of different nature

reported on the person of the deceased in the

postmortem report. In his statement recorded under

Section 161 Cr.P.C., the first informant has also

supported the prosecution case by stating that the

present applicant also used to demand dowry and the

deceased was done to death by the accused persons

including he present applicant. The first informant has

also stated to have seen various injuries on the person

of the deceased which stands corroborated by the fact

that even in the postmortem report, there are various

injuries reported on the person