Court No. - 76

Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 19948 of 2022

Applicant :- Manoj

Opposite Party :- State of U.P.

Counsel for Applicant :- Ashish Goyal,Sudhir Kumar Kulshrestha

Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.

Hon'ble Sanjay Kumar Singh,J.

Heard learned counsel for the applicant, learned

Additional Government Advocate representing the

State and perused the record.

By means of this application under Section 439 of

Cr.P.C., applicant Manoj, who is involved in Case

Crime No. 80 of 2021, under Sections 498A, 304B

IPC and Section 3/4 D.P. Act, police station Bah,

district Agra, seeks enlargement on bail during the

pendency of trial.

As per prosecution case, in brief, informant, who is

brother of deceased, lodged the 昀椀rst information

report on 26.04.2021 with regard to an incident

which took place on 25.04.2021 against the

present applicant Manoj, Chhote Lal, Omwati,

Kinnu and Renu, who are husband, brothers-in-law,

sisters-in-law of the deceased, respectively, with

the allegation inter alia that marriage of his sister

was solemnized on 10.07.2019 with the applicant

and in the marriage, he had given su昀케cient dowry

as per his capacity but her in-laws were not

satis昀椀ed and there was consistent demand of a

motorcycle as additional dowry from the side of

accused and on account of this reason, they used

to harass and beat his sister. On 25.04.2021, his

sister was burnt to death by pouring kerosene oil.

It is argued by learned counsel for the applicant

that general allegations have been levelled

against the accused persons including the present

applicant. After culmination of the investigation,

charge-sheet has been submitted only against the

applicant and co-accused Smt. Premwati @

Omwati, who is sister-in-law of the deceased, and

has been granted bail vide order dated 22.11.2021

of the Coordinate Bench of this Court passed in

Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 40632 of 2021.

It is also submitted that it is a case of accidental

death and no other bodily injury was found on the

body of the deceased. Much emphasis has been

given by contending that in this case, three

prosecution witnesses, namely, Shankar Lal, who

is informant of this case, Gudia Devi, wife of

informant, and Smt. Sushila Devi, who is elder

sister of the informant, have been examined as

PWs-1, 2 and 3 but they have not supported the

prosecution case and at the request of

prosecution, they have been declared hostile,

therefore, there is no chance of conviction of the

applicant who is languishing in jail since

27.04.2021. Lastly, it is submitted by the learned

counsel for the applicant that there is no chance of

the applicant 昀氀eeing away from the judicial

process or tampering with the prosecution

evidence. In case, the applicant is released on bail,

he will not misuse the liberty of bail and cooperate

with the trial.

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

vehemently opposed the prayer for bail of the

applicant by contending that burn injury has been

found on the body of the deceased and she died

her unnatural death. The o昀昀ence is heinous in

nature, therefore, the bail application of the

applicant is liable to be rejected.

Having heard submission of learned counsel for

the parties and examined the matter in its

entirety, I 昀椀nd that deceased died her unnatural

death within a short span of time of her marriage,

i.e., one year and nine months in her matrimonial

home and as per the prosecution case, she has

been burnt to death by the accused pouring

kerosene oil upon her on account of non-ful昀椀llment

of demand of dowry as alleged in the 昀椀rst

information report, therefore, presumption under

Section 113B of the Evidence Act shall be drawn

against the applicant. Since the applicant is

husband of the deceased, he is not only

responsible for taking care of his wife but is also

liable to explain the death of his