SARLA DEVI Vs. STATE OF NCT OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition has been filed by the petitioner under Section 438 Cr.P.C. for grant of anticipatory bail in FIR No. 65/2015 under Section 498-A/304-B/34 IPC registered at P.S. Pul Prahladpur.

(2.) The case of prosecution is that i) a PCR call was received at the Police Station vide DD No. 35 A at 9.20 pm that a lady had hanged herself at D-550, Pul Prahladpur. ii) on receipt of information, it came to notice that the incident had occurred at D-365 and not D- 550. On this the I.O. reached the spot i.e 3rd floor, D-365, Pul Prahlad Pur, where a lady named Poonam w/o Chagan Singh was found lying dead on the floor. The husband of the deceased Sh. Chagan Singh and others were found present at the spot who informed that Poonam was his wife and that they had love marriage two years ago. iii) On that day he had gone for his work at his office/factory at Okhla and when he came back he found that the room was bolted from inside and when he called Poonam to open the door she didn't respond. On this he checked from the open space of the kitchen and found that Poonam was hanging from the fan with the help of a Chunni. He immediately went inside and shouted for help. On this Ms. Geeta, sister of the tenant living on the second floor came upstairs and they both opened the knot of chunni from the neck of Poonam and found that she was dead. iv) Thereafter, the Executive Magistrate was called who subsequently called the father and the brother of the deceased and recorded their statements on the next day. They alleged that Chagan Singh and her sister Poonam had a love marriage in December, 2012 but they did not inform them. They came to know about this marriage in February, 2013 and subsequently they sent Poonam along with Chagan Singh. However just after 15-20 days, the mother of Chagan Singh used to come near to his house and utter abusive language and taunt them for not giving proper dowry to Poonam. On 9th August 2013 they had a fight and cross cases were registered. Chagan and Poonam had one baby boy out of their wedlock, but none of them went to their house at that time also. However the cross cases registered were withdrawn on 16th December, 2014 after mutual consent. In the meantime whenever he asked his sister she said that she is OK. However about 2 months back when he called his sister Poonam, he felt that she didn't seem ok. He suspected that Poonam was killed by Chagan Singh and his mother/petitioner. v) The parents and brother of the deceased submitted that they used to taunt them for less dowry and since they had not given any dowry to Poonam they killed her and she did not commit suicide. During investigation the neighbours/public persons were interrogated when (i) Mahilal s/o Sh. Bhikam Singh (ii) Kamal Singh s/o Ram Charan, (iii) Bhishamber Singh s/o Khayali Ram and (iv) Ram Nageena came forward and deposed about the whole matter and they supported the allegation of the complainant. They said that the accused used to meet them and discuss her grievances about not taking enough dowry by the deceased.

(3.) The case of the petitioner is that