The High Court of Bombay has granted bail to a senior citizen accused of forging her husband’s will noting that her arrest & custody were unwarranted.
Justice Milind Jadhav, who took up the matter for hearing on an urgent basis late Saturday evening, noted that a case was made out prima facie to grant interim bail.
Accused Hemalata Shah is 61 years old & is suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol & other ailments, the HC said.
The case against the woman pertaining to criminal conspiracy & forgery was lodged by a former business partner of her husband.
As per the complaint, the woman had forged the will of her husband to stake claim to his properties.
The bench noted that the will has already been probated in 2020 by the HC.
As per the woman’s plea, a non-bailable warrant was issued against her on March 27 & she was arrested the next day itself.
She was remanded in one-day police custody, & was sent to judicial custody till April 11 on March 28. She then moved the High Court.
Justice Jadhav termed as “shocking” the manner in which the magistrate’s court functioned & said the woman was sent to one-day police custody despite such custody not being sought.
The bench said once the will, which is alleged to have been forged, has been probated by HC, the magistrate ought not to have gone into the issue of forgery.
The High Court said, “In my opinion in the aforementioned delineated facts custody of the applicant is completely unwarranted".
While granting the woman interim bail, the Court asked her to cooperate with the police in its probe.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the LatestLaws staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source Link
Picture Source :