Full Judgment Text
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CASE NO.:
Appeal (crl.) 219 of 2005
PETITIONER:
M.P.Lohia
RESPONDENT:
State of West Bengal & Anr.
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 04/02/2005
BENCH:
N.Santosh Hegde & S.B.Sinha
JUDGMENT:
J U D G M E N T
(Arising out of SLP(Crl.)No.991 of 2004)
(With Crl.A.Nos 220/05 @ SLP(Crl.) No.1302/04,
& Crl.A.No 221/05 @ SLP(Crl.)No.1829/04)
SANTOSH HEGDE,J.
Heard learned counsel for the parties.
Leave granted.
The appellants in these appeals have been charged for
offences punishable under Sections 304B, 406 and 498A read with
Section 34 of the IPC. Their applications for the grant of
anticipatory bail have been rejected by the courts below. Daughter
of the complainant Chandni (since deceased) was married to the
appellant in the third appeal before us. Their marriage took place
on 18th February, 2002. The appellants live in Ludhiana whereas
the complainant and his family are residents of Calcutta. Chandni
committed suicide on 28th of October, 2003 at her parents house in
Calcutta. It is the case of the appellants herein that the deceased
was a schizophrenic psychotic patient with cyclic depression and
was under medical treatment. Though she was living in the
matrimonial home often went to Calcutta to reside with her parents
and she was also being treated by doctors there for the above-
mentioned ailments.
While the complaint against the appellants is that they were
not satisfied with the dowry given at the time of wedding and were
harassing the deceased continuously, consequent to which she
developed depression and even though the parents of the deceased
tried to assure the appellants that they would try to meet their
demand of the dowry, the deceased was being treated cruelly at her
matrimonial home and her husband had no love and affection to
her because of which she developed depression.
It has also come on record that the deceased had tried to
commit suicide at the residence of her parents sometime in July,
2002 i.e. about a year earlier than the actual date of her death.
On behalf of the prosecution as well as on behalf of the
defence, large number of documents have been produced to show
that the appellants were demanding dowry because of which the
deceased was depressed and ultimately committed suicide. Per
contra the documents from the side of the defence show that the
relationship between the husband, wife and the in-laws were
cordial and it was only illness of the deceased that was the cause of
her premature death.
One thing is obvious that there has been an attempt on the
part of both the sides to create documents either to establish the
criminal case against the appellants or on the part of the appellants
to create evidence to defend themselves from such criminal
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charges. Correctness or genuineness of this document can only be
gone into in a full-fledged trial and it will not be safe to place
reliance on any one of these documents at this stage. Therefore, we
would venture not to comment on the genuineness of these
documents at this stage. Suffice it to say that this is a matter to be
considered at the trial.
In this background the only question for our consideration at
this stage is whether the appellants be granted anticipatory bail or
not.
As stated above, any expression of opinion on the merits of
the case except to the extent of finding out prima facie whether the
appellants are entitled for anticipatory bail or not, would likely to
effect the trial. Therefore, taking into consideration the entire
material available on record without expressing any opinion on the
same, we think it appropriate that the appellants should be released
on bail in the event of their arrest on their furnishing a bail bond of
Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakh) each and one surety for the like
sum by each appellants to the satisfaction of the Court or the
arresting authority as the case may be. We direct that the appellants
shall abide by the conditions statutorily imposed under Section
438(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and further direct that in
the event of the investigating agency requiring the presence of the
appellants for the purpose of investigation they be given one
week’s notice and they shall appear before such investigating
agency and their presence at such investigation shall not exceed
two days at a time but such interrogation shall not be a custodial
interrogation. They shall be entitled to have their counsel present at
the time of such interrogation.
Having gone through the records, we find one disturbing
factor which we feel is necessary to comment upon in the interest
of justice. The death of Chandni took place on 28th February, 2002
and the complaint in this regard was registered and the
investigation was in progress. The application for grant of
anticipatory bail was disposed of by the High Court of Calcutta on
13.2.2004 and special leave petition was pending before this Court.
Even then an article has appeared in a magazine called ’Saga’
titled "Doomed by Dowry" written by one Kakoli Poddar based on
her interview of the family of the deceased. Giving version of the
tragedy and extensively quoting the father of the deceased as to his
version of the case. The facts narrated therein are all materials that
may be used in the forthcoming trial in this case and we have no
hesitation that this type of articles appearing in the media would
certainly interfere with the administration of justice. We deprecate
this practice and caution the publisher, editor and the journalist
who was responsible for the said article against indulging in such
trial by media when the issue is subjudiced. However, to prevent
any further issue being raised in this regard, we treat this matter as
closed and hope that the other concerned in journalism would take
note of this displeasure expressed by us for interfering with the
administration of justice.
For the reasons stated above, these appeals succeed and the
same are allowed.