Allahabad High Court
Shalini Singh And 2 Others vs State Of U.P. And Another on 5 April, 2023
Bench: Jyotsna Sharma
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 83
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC ANTICIPATORY BAIL APPLICATION U/S 438 CR.P.C. No. - 9669 of 2022
Applicant :- Shalini Singh And 2 Others
Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another
Counsel for Applicant :- Saroj Kumar Yadav
Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Sudhir Kumar Singh
alongwith
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC ANTICIPATORY BAIL APPLICATION U/S 438 CR.P.C. No. - 9653 of 2022
Applicant :- Km. Shikha Singh And Another
Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And Another
Counsel for Applicant :- Saroj Kumar Yadav
Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Sudhir Kumar Singh
Hon'ble Mrs. Jyotsna Sharma,J.
1. Heard Sri Niraj Kumar Singh, Advocate holding brief for Sri Saroj Kumar Yadav, learned counsel for the applicants, Sri O.P. Mishra, learned AGA for the State and perused the papers on record.
2. The present application has been moved on behalf of the applicants-Shalini Singh, Sarita Devi, Surendra Kumar Singh, Km. Shikha Singh and Sarvesh Kumar Singh seeking anticipatory bail in Case Crime no. 0202 of 2022, under Section 306 I.P.C., Police Station Maduwadeeh, District Varanasi.
3. As per the allegations in the FIR, the deceased's wife, father in-law, mother in-law, brother in-law and sister in-law have been harassing and treating the deceased in a cruel manner; the deceased often used to tell about the treatment meted out to him and about his sufferings, to his parents and his friend; it is mentioned in the FIR that the first informant (brother of the deceased) tried to counsel the family members of his brother's in-laws and also his wife several times but they did not relent and continued with their atrocious behavior towards his brother; it is further alleged in the FIR that the deceased's wife went to her maika on 23.06.2022 and has been living there since then; after the indulgence of his parents, the deceased returned to his place of posting/job; it is further alleged that just a day before the incident and on the day of incident itself, his wife and other members of her family threatened and mentally tortured him by abusing him and thereafter he committed suicide by hanging; the police reached the spot and found a suicide note, then this FIR has been lodged by the brother of the deceased.
4. It is contended on behalf of the applicants as below:-
(i) The FIR has been lodged by brother of deceased to foreclose claim of the applicants (who include deceased's wife) over his property;
(ii) The FIR has been lodged after 5 days of the incident; the delay raises doubts;
(iii) The suicide note is a doubtful document;
(iv) Applicants-Km. Shikha Singh and Sarvesh Kumar Singh, who are sister and brother of Shalini Singh (wife of the deceased) have been dragged in this case just to damage their future;
(v) Even if the contents of the suicide note are taken as true, it cannot be said that they instigated the commission of suicide; the applicants have cited the judgment of the Supreme Court in Criminal Appeal No. 612 of 2011 dated 01.03.2011 (M. Mohan vs. The State represented by the Deputy Superintendent of Police) and argued that abetment involves a mental process of instigating a person or intentionally aiding a person to commit suicide. No offence under Section 306 IPC is made out against them.
5. The application for anticipatory bail is opposed by the other side. Following facts have been put before me:-
(i) The genuineness of suicide has been established by F.S.L. report;
(ii) The suicide is a tell all document and a clinching piece of evidence, value whereof cannot be undermined by raising specious legal and factual arguments;
(iii) Ordinarily instigation of suicide cannot be a single act rather it is combined effect of a series of facts and circumstances as is in the present case which caused so much agony and pain to the victim that he was driven to take extreme step of committing suicide; my attention has been drawn to certain portion of the suicide note wherein it is clearly stated as below:-
"Mere suicide karne ki wajah meri patni (Shalini Singh) uska bhai (Sunny) uski Bahan (Shikha) aur uski ma (Sarita) and uska Baap (Surendra Singh) jis ki wajah se mai yeah kadam udha raha hu. Yeah log mil ke meri life ko barbad kar diye hai. Inhi sabke wajah se mai suicide kar raha hun."
(iv) There is quite a long suicide note in the handwriting of the deceased describing the mental state of pain, helplessness and anguish caused to him by all the applicants;
(v) Names of all the applicants have specifically mentioned in the suicide note;
(vi) The suicide note was found by the police and had been in their possession; genuineness of the same cannot be doubted;
(vii) There are a number of facts, circumstances and evidence ruling out possibility of false implication;
(viii) The importance of this suicide note which legally is a dying declaration cannot be ignored. Moreover while considering anticipatory bail the court is not expected to conduct a mini trial.
6. I considered the nature of allegations, the submissions of both the sides and went through all the material on record. It may be noted that an anticipatory bail is not a substitute for regular bail. The parameters for grant of anticipatory bail are fundamentally different from the grant of regular bail in certain respects. The exercise of this extra-ordinary powers calls for existence of some circumstances which may prompt this court to intervene in the regular process of law for the purpose of furthering the ends of justice and for preventing abuse/misuse of process of law. I do not find any material to form an opinion that the name of the applicants have been dragged in to merely bring disgrace to their name. I do not find any ground good enough to give benefit of anticipatory bail to the applicants, hence, the present anticipatory bail application is rejected.
7. It is made clear that observations made herein shall not in any way influence the learned trial Judge in forming his independent opinion, based on material before him, at any stage of the case.
Order Date :- 5.4.2023/#Vikram/-
