A local court in Banidpora rejected a bail plea of a woman accused of abetting her sister-in-law’s suicide in Chittibandey village of north Kashmir, reported a local news agency, Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
An unnamed official told the agency that the additional mobile magistrate, Iqbal Ahmad Akhoon rejected the bail plea of the accused woman on the grounds that she may influence the witnesses and evidence.
The magistrate stated that the accused woman may hamper and tamper the evidence and hence the court is not inclined to release the applicant on bail. “The bail application of the accused is dismissed,” the magistrate stated.
The accused woman who was arrested on 3 August in case FIR No. 25/2020 P/S Aragam under section 306, 498A IPC for abetting her sister-in-law’s suicide in Chittibandey village.
She had moved the application through her counsel for seeking bail on the grounds that she was innocent as she was not involved in the commission of crime. Meanwhile, learned counsel advocate Aadil Rashid who appeared on behalf of the state and victim’s family argued that if the accused woman is granted bail she may hamper and tamper with the prosecution case and she has committed a heinous crime.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the magistrate stated that considering the nature and gravity of the offence, the accused woman cannot be granted bail.
An official told KNO that the woman was charged with “abetting the crime and subjecting her sister-in-law to cruelty”, who had on 10 July self-immolated by spraying kerosene on herself at her in-laws home in Chittibandey village.
She had received 90 percent burn injuries. Hailing originally from Ayathmulla village, she was shifted to district hospital Bandipora, wherefrom she was referred to Srinagar’s SMHS hospital in critical condition.
Survived by three children, she, however, succumbed to her injuries at the city hospital. “In a statement recorded by the police while she was in the hospital, the deceased woman had alleged “mental harassment from her in-laws”, the official said. Acting on her statement and after interrogating her in-laws, the police said “during the investigation offence 309 IPC was converted into offence 306 IPC as well as offence 498 A-IPC is also added in the instant case during the investigation,” he said. (KNO)
