The High Court of Punjab and Haryana granted bail to the petitioner who was accused of murdering her own daughter and held that it is highly improbable that merely for Rs.90,000/-, a biological mother would kill her own daughter and the story put forth by the prosecution was not sufficient enough to inspire the confidence of the court and the principle of criminal jurisprudence “bail is a rule and jail is an exception” needs to be borne in mind by this Court along with the right to life as enshrined under Article 21.
Brief Facts:
The petitioner, mother of her deceased daughter of nine years filed the present petition for bail after she was accused of murdering her and was booked under Sections 302, 120-B, 182, 34 of the IPC.
Contentions of the Petitioner:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner contended that the petitioner had been nominated as an accused without any incriminating material against her and the story put forth by the prosecution for committing murder of her own real minor daughter by strangulation with the help of 'Chunnis' out of greed for Rs.90,000/-, which is the amount to become due out of her Life Insurance Policy, which is submitted to be highly improbable, keeping in view the relationship of mother and daughter, who is also having a son aged 6 years. It was further argued that merely on the basis of the confession statement made before the police by the petitioner and co-accused, the petitioner has been roped in the commissioning of the offence and accepted the postmortem report, which has recorded the cause of death to be an Asphyxia, which is anti-mortem and sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature.
Contentions of the Respondent:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent contended that the petitioner and her ex-husband had purchased one plot for Rs.3,00,000/- on instalment and paid Rs.1,49,000/ but thereafter found it difficult to make the balance payments and it is on this account, expecting the amount of Life Insurance Policy to the tune of Rs.90,000/-, they conspired to kill the minor girl.
Observations of the court:
The court stated that the state counsel had no answer regarding the FSL report except the fact that the said report is inconclusive, as it does not reflect any kind of impression of fingerprints of the accused-petitioner or ingredients of the saliva of the deceased if at all her mouth was gagged with 'Chunni'.
The court referred to the custody certificate and stated that the petitioner was behind bars for the last 2 years, 2 months and 21 days and the trial is almost at the fag end as all the material witnesses stand examined and the court cannot ignore the fact that the petitioner is a biological mother of the deceased and is also having another minor child aged 6 years.
It was further stated that the story put forth by the prosecution was not sufficient enough to inspire the confidence of the court and the principle of criminal jurisprudence “bail is a rule and jail is an exception” needs to be borne in mind by this Court along with the right to life as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India in addition to the fact that the petitioner is a lady of clean antecedents and thus it is highly improbable that merely for Rs.90,000/-, a biological mother would kill her own daughter and over and above had to use 2 'chunnis' to strangulate a minor girl.
The decision of the Court:
The court granted bail to the petitioner and allowed the petition.
Case Title: Pinki vs. State of Punjab
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sandeep Moudgil
Case No.: CRM-M-44958-2023
Advocate for the Petitioner: Mr. Amandeep Singh Rai
Advocate for the Respondent: Mr. Rajiv Verma
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