Allahabad High Court: In a bail application filed by the accused for offences under Section 439 Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (‘CrPC’) under Sections 498-A, 506, 504, 302, 508, 120-B and 34 of the Penal code, (‘IPC’), Saurabh Shyam Shamshery, J said that the mindset of accused and co-accused who still believe in occultism to be a cure of female infertility even before ascertaining that it might be a case of male infertility, is of persons living in stone age and not in 21st Century, where science as developed to such extent that even infertility (of male or of female) may be medically cured. Therefore, the Court rejected the bail application.
In the present case, the accused (brother-in-law of deceased) along with her family members, including husband of deceased hatched a conspiracy and in furtherance of their common intention, subjected the deceased with gruesome rituals as advised by a tantrik (co-accused) that she was repeatedly burnt by red hot Pinch (chimta) and due to that she died.
The Court took note of the post-mortem report and observed that as many as 17 ante-mortem injuries including many burn injuries were found and immediate cause of death was coma due to ante-mortem head injury, a lacerated wound.
The Court rejected the bail applications after examining the law on bail and taking note of the manner in which victim was tortured by occultist rituals and caused death of victim due to number of injuries.
[Durvesh v State of U.P, 2023 SCC OnLine All 139, decided on 12-04-2023]