Office Notes, reports, orders or proceedings SL.

Date or directions COURT’S OR JUDGE’S ORDERS No.

and Registrar’s order with Signatures BA1 No.2019 of 2025 Hon’ble Alok Mahra, J.

Mr. M.S. Pal, Senior Advocate, assisted by Mr. Harshpal Sekhon, Advocate for the applicant.

Mr. Deepak Bisht, Deputy Advocate General for the State of Uttarakhand.

2. This first bail application has been moved by the applicant seeking regular bail in F.I.R. No.93 of 2025, under Section 80(2) of B.N.S., 2023 and Section 3/4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, registered at Police Station Kelakhera, District Udham Singh Nagar.

3. An F.I.R. was registered by the brother of the deceased, in which it is alleged that his sister was subjected to harassment in connection with dowry demands, in consequence whereof she committed suicide by hanging on 24.06.2025. In the said F.I.R., the applicant and all the members of his family were arraigned as accused. After investigation, a charge sheet was filed only against the applicant, whereas all other family members were exonerated. The marriage between the applicant and the deceased was solemnized on 20.06.2022. The statement of the brother of the deceased was recorded under Section 180 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (B.N.S.S.), in which he deposed that on the morning of 24.06.2025, his sister contacted him from the applicant’s mobile phone and informed him that she was being harassed for dowry by the applicant and his family members. Further, on 26.05.2025 at about 9:00 p.m., he received a telephonic call from the applicant, who informed him that the deceased had hanged herself; this information was conveyed to the complainant by the applicant himself.

4. Learned counsel for the applicant submits that the applicant himself took the deceased to the hospital, where she was treated, but unfortunately she did not survive and succumbed to her injuries on 27.05.2025. Thereafter, an F.I.R. was lodged immediately. Learned counsel further submits that the allegations levelled against the applicant in the F.I.R. are wholly false and baseless, as there was no demand of dowry or harassment by the applicant or his family members. It is submitted that, even from the statement of the complainant, it appears that no case regarding demand of dowry or harassment by the applicant had ever been registered or any complaint filed by the complainant prior to the incident. Learned counsel for the applicant contends that the provisions of Section 80(2) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (B.N.S.) are not attracted, as even assuming the truth of the complainant’s statement that the deceased had complained of dowry harassment in the morning of 24.05.2025, she committed suicide by hanging herself more than 36 hours thereafter. In view of such a time gap, it is submitted that the act of harassment on 24.05.2025 bears no proximate causal link or immediate antecedent to the act of suicide, and therefore cannot be said to be the proximate cause of her death.

5. Learned State Counsel has vehemently opposed the prayer for bail.

6. In the facts of the present case, the allegations against the applicant are largely unsubstantiated and rest on ex post facto narration, with no independent complaint or prior complaint of dowry demand or harassment ever having been made against the applicant. The time gap of more than 36 hours between the alleged incident of harassment on 24.05.2025 and the act of