Delhi High Court: Rajnish Bhatnagar, J. granted bail to a young mother of two minor children, who was booked in connection with the murder of her tutor with whom she had an illicit relationship.
Facts
On 10-3-2020, police received information that one RK had been admitted to LBS Hospital. By the time police reached the hospital, RK had died during treatment. As per the prosecution, the deceased was a home tutor engaged by the petitioner for teaching her as she was preparing for Central Teachers Eligibility Test. During this period, the petitioner and the deceased developed physical intimacy. This fact came to the knowledge of petitioner’s husband, who tried to persuade the deceased to call off the relationship but the deceased was adamant to continue relationship with the petitioner. The deceased even threatened the petitioner that he had their video captured, and asked her to continue their relationship otherwise he will make the video public.
As per the prosecution, on 9-3-2020, the petitioner made a phone call to the deceased and asked him to come to a flat in a certain apartment building which belonged to one of the co-accused. On reaching the said flat, three co-accused persons gave beating to the deceased. Later, the deceased succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
Contentions
The petitioner filed the instant petition for bail under Section 439 CrPC submitting that she was a young lady aged 32 years and mother of two minor children. She merely made a phone call to the deceased and after dropping him near the apartment building, she went away to her husband’s chemist shop. She only dropped the deceased near the apartment building as her husband wanted to talk to the deceased and take back the video so that she may not be maligned in the society. The petitioner claimed that she was unaware of what transpired in the flat, and she had no involvement in murder of the deceased.
Per contra, the prosecution vehemently opposed the bail petition alleging that the petitioner was a part of the conspiracy.
Decision
Looking firstly at antecedents of the petitioner, the High Court found that as per the status report, she had no previous involvement.
The Court noted the fact that the petitioner was a young mother of two minor children. She was involved in illicit relationship with her tutor. She wanted back the video recordings made by the deceased so as to save her image in the society and for that purpose she narrated entire facts to her husband. On day of the incident, the petitioner dropped the deceased near the apartment building from where he went to the flat where the crime occurred. In Court’s opinion, nothing appeared on record to show that the petitioner at any point of time had any knowledge about what would be done with the deceased by other co-accused. The only role assigned to the petitioner was that she dropped the deceased near the apartment building. Even otherwise, there was no communication between the petitioner and other co-accused from the time she dropped the deceased near the apartment till the time her husband came back to the chemist shop.
Looking into entire facts and circumstances of the case, and the role attributed to the petitioner, and also that she is a young mother of two minor children, her husband already being in judicial custody, the Court allowed the petition and admitted the petitioner to bail on furnishing a personal bond in the sum of Rs 50,000 with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction the trial court. [Jyoti v. State (NCT of Delhi), 2021 SCC OnLine Del 3902, decided on 4-8-2021]
Advocates before the Court:
For the Petitioner: Mr Jitender Sethi, Advocate with Mr Hemant Gulati, Advocate.
For the Respondent: Ms Rajni Gupta, APP for the State SI
Subhash Kumar, PS Ghazipur.
