RAJESH LAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicant vide the present application under Section 438 read with Section 482 Cr.P.C., 1973 seeks the grant of anticipatory bail in relation to FIR No. 42/2020 registered at Police Station Sonia Vihar under Sections 304B / 498A / 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 submitting inter alia to the effect that he has been falsely implicated in the present case and that there is no live link between the applicant and the demise of the deceased wife who as per the postmortem report expired on 28.2.2020 due to asphyxia as a result of ante-mortem hanging and had allegedly committed suicide due to dowry demands and cruelty meted out to the deceased by the petitioner and his family members allegedly.

(2.) Notice of the application was issued to the State and the complainant was represented at the time of the hearing of the anticipatory bail application by Mr. Jerome George. It has been submitted on behalf of the applicant that the daughter of the complainant (since deceased) was named Macklina George. The status reports were submitted in the present case by the State dated 8.7.2020 14.7.2020 in support of the prosecution version put forth through the FIR in question.

(3.) As per the status reports submitted on behalf of the State and submissions made on behalf of the State on 28.2.2020, a PCR call vide DD No.12 A regarding hanging was received at the Police Station Sonia Vihar, Delhi and when the Investigating Officer ASI Narender reached the spot at the 2nd Floor at E-2/769, Gali No. 124th Pusta, Sonia Vihar, Delhi the body of Macklina George D/o Jerome George, (since deceased) was on the floor and it was learnt that she aged 31 years had committed suicide by hanging from the ceiling fan with the help of a stole and that Macklina's father and sister had cut the stole from between and laid her down on the floor and that they had opened the knot of the stole and kept it near her head. Investigation at the spot was conducted by the police. The postmortem on the body of the deceased was also conducted. The father of the deceased informed that the deceased had been married to the petitioner on 30.10.2019 in as much as the demise of the deceased was within seven years of her marriage, the SDM, Karawal Nagar was informed of the incident and the dead body of the deceased was preserved in the mortuary of the GTB hospital and the father of the deceased Jerome George and her brother Godson George were produced before the SDM, Karawal Nagar, where Sh. R.L.Meena, the SDM, Karawal Nagar, recorded the statements of the father and the brother of the deceased and gave them to the Investigating Officer. The father of the deceased however stated that he would give a detailed statement to the Investigating Officer after the final rites of his daughter and on 29.2.2020 i.e. the next day of the demise of the deceased, her father gave the statement in the police station to ASI Narender and stated that he had three children including two daughters, i.e., Twinkle and Macklina and one son Godson and that Macklina George was his elder daughter had been married on 30.10.2019 as per Christian rites at the Rosary Church, Kingsway Camp, Delhi, followed by a dinner programme in the evening at Signature Garden, Shyam Vatika, 5th Pusta, Sonia Vihar, Delhi and approximately 2000 people attended the marriage and he had given Rs.5,00,000/- in cash, a gold chain for the groom, one gold ring, one watch and one gold chain and gold ring to the groom's mother and to his daughter Macklina George (since deceased) he gave one gold necklace, two gold rings, 1 gold chain, 2 sets of tops, 1 pair of gold Kundals, 1 set of silver anklets and one set of silver chutkis apart from furnitures and gifts to all the guests in which he spent a total of Rs.25,00,000/- . It was informed by the father of the deceased that despite his having been given so much dowry soon after the marriage his daughter's husband, her mother-in-law Pushpa and sister-in-law Anjali and the petitioner's aunt's daughter Nidhi had been taunting his daughter and used to tell his daughter Macklina George (since deceased) to get gold jewellery for everyone, a refrigerator and money for enabling Rajesh Lal, the petitioner herein, to start a business. When his daughter refused to get the dowry, they used to beat her and all of them were involved in beating his daughter. It was also alleged in the FIR that they used to lock his daughter Macklina George, the deceased, in a room and did not give her food and that on 4.1.2020 his son-in-law, had beaten his daughter in relation to dowry and dropped her at the house of the complainant. It was inter alia stated in the FIR that all these incidents were told to him by his daughter after which his son Godson had made Rajesh Lal understand and on 13.1.2020 his son Godson dropped his daughter at her matrimonial home at East Rohtash Nagar, Shahdara, Delhi and even after this the above persons as named in the FIR kept demanding dowry and on 11.2.2020 all four of them dropped the daughter of the complainant at the complainant's house at Sonia Vihar. The complainant has alleged further that when Rajesh Lal, i.e., the petitioner herein, came to drop his daughter, the complainant tried to make him understand that he was unable to give any more dowry but Rajesh Lal, i.e., the petitioner herein, did not listen to him and left and thereafter on 26.2.2020 Rajesh Lal, i.e. the petitioner herein, called his daughter (since deceased), the deceased informed him that she was coming to him but Rajesh Lal, i.e., the petitioner herein, said that if she went near him then he would stab her with a knife. It was further stated in the FIR that after that his daughter( since deceased) started staying silent and that on 28.2.2020 whilst the complainant was sitting with his daughters on the first floor, his daughter Macklina George (since deceased) told him that she was going to take a bath and it was around 11:45(a.m.) at that time and when his daughter did not come back after half an hour, he went with his younger daughter Twinkle George to the second floor and when they reached there they saw that his daughter Macklina George (since deceased) had committed suicide by hanging from the ceiling fan with the help of a stole whom he got down with the help of his younger daughter Twinkle George after cutting the stole from between and opened the knot. The complainant thereafter stated that he rang his son Godson George and had asked him to come and his son came home after 20-25 minutes and made a PCR call and the police reached at his house whereafter the FIR was registered.