The court allowed bail to the lady applicant, Smt. Malti, in a kidnapping and rape case resulting in death. Relying on the bail grant to a male co-accused and her status, the court held it to be a fit case for bail without exploring the merits.
Bail granted to applicant by furnishing personal bond and two sureties under specific conditions.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
Court No. - 77
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 16384 of 2019
Applicant :- Smt. Malti Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. Counsel for Applicant :- Sunil Kumar Tiwari Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Jagdish Prasad Mishra
Hon'ble Aniruddha Singh,J.
This is the second bail application on behalf of applicant. First bail application was dismissed with liberty to file fresh.
Heard learned counsel for the applicant, learned counsel for the complainant as well as learned A.G.A for the State and perused the record.
According to prosecution case, F.I.R. was lodged on 10.5.2018 against four accused persons, namely Malti, Nikita, Sandeep, Kuldeep and four unknown persons alleging that on 8.5.2018 they kidnapped Shakshi and raped her, later on she died. According to postmortem report, cause of death could not be ascertained, viscera was preserved and according to F.S.L. report, aluminium phosphate was found in the body of deceased.
It is submitted by learned counsel for the applicant that the applicant is lady. Co-accused namely Kuldeep has been granted bail by co-ordinate Bench of this Court vide order dated 17.4.2019 in Criminal Appeal No. 1155 of 2019, since the role of the applicant is better than the role of coaccused, therefore, the applicant is also entitled for bail on the ground of parity. The applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case. Applicant is belonged to scheduled caste community, hence charge has not been framed for the offence under Section 3(2)5 S.C./S.T. There is no independent witness and no legal evidence against the applicant. Offences levelled against the applicant are not attracted in the present case. She is languishing in jail since 15.12.2018 (more than four and half months) having no criminal history and in case she is released on bail, she will not misuse the liberty of bail and will cooperate in trial.
Learned counsel for the complainant opposed the prayer for bail and submitted that the bail of applicant was rejected by S.C./S.T. Court before trial court hence appeal lies under Section 14A of S.C./S.T. Act and admitted that the case of present applicant is identical to co-accused Kuldeep who has been enlarged on bail.
Learned A.G.A. opposed the prayer for bail but could not dispute the aforesaid fact as argued by learned counsel for
the applicant and admitted that applicant has no criminal history and the case of present applicant is identical to coaccused Kuldeep who has been enlarged on bail.
Considering the submission of learned counsel for the parties, facts of the case, nature of allegation and period of custody, gravity of offence, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, the Court is of the opinion that it is a fit case for bail. Hence, the bail application is hereby allowed.
Let applicant Smt. Malti involved in Case Crime No. 169 of 2018, under Sections 363, 366, 302, 328, 34 IPC, Police Station Purkaji, District Muzaffar Nagar be released on bail on furnishing a personal bond and two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned subject to following conditions:
2.The applicant will not pressurize/ intimidate the prosecution witness.
3.The applicant will appear before the trial court on the date fixed, unless personal presence is exempted.
4.The applicant shall not commit an offence similar to the offence of which she is accused, or suspected, of the commission of which she is suspected.
5.The applicant shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade her from disclosing such facts to the Court or to any police officer or tamper with the evidence.
In case of breach of any of the above conditions, the court below shall be at liberty to cancel the bail.
Order Date :- 6.5.2019 A. Singh
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the applicant is entitled to bail considering the gender and identity of the accused.
Whether the parity argument based on a co-accused's bail necessitates granting bail to the lady applicant.
Smt. Malti
Aniruddha Singh
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
