Case Title: Anees v. State of U.P. I Criminal Misc. Application No. 23624 of 2020.
Allahabad High Court while the deciding bail application held that the quantity and quality of the evidence cannot be looked into but is required to see whether the delinquent appears to have committed the crime and he is entitled for bail or not.
The facts of the case are that the applicant is the husband of the deceased wife-informant’s sister and he and his family are alleged to subject the deceased wife to the cruelty for demand of dowry and used to beat her. Thereafter, the family members of the applicant killed the informant’s sister by pouring kerosene and setting her on fire. Before the death of the deceased, she stated that her husband and his family members had beaten her for several days and poured kerosene on her and set her on fire.
The learned counsel for the applicant submitted that the said dying declaration is not recorded as per law and hence inadmissible and no presumption under section 113-B can be drawn under the Indian Evidence Act. Further the Assistant Sub-Inspector who has recorded the said dying declaration has not been examined by the IO and has not even been produced in the court and neither the same is supported by any medical certificate of treating doctor.
Opposing the bail application, the learned assistant government advocate submitted that there was a videographic recording of the statement of the deceased person. Further the statement of the deceased- informant’s sister before ASI and before treating doctors tantamounts to dying declaration as they have been duly recorded by them during the course of their official duty. He further stated that though both the dying declarations are in different language, it contains more or less the similar allegations against the applicant.
After considering the facts, the court observed that though the language of the ‘dying declarations’ before the ASI and treating doctors is different, the contents are almost the same. Further the IO has also fairly exonerated the family members of the applicants who were made accuse in the FIR but were not mentioned in the said dying declaration. Further it stated that “At the stage of adjudicating a bail application this court is not inclined to delve into the quality or quantity of evidence but to see whether the delinquent appears to have committed the crime and he is entitled for bail or not”.
Going through the evidence on record and also taking into consideration the fact that a young lady has been set to fire by the applicant, the court denied bail to the applicant.
Story Update By: Ms. Sai Sushmitha, Correspondent at Lawgic.
Edited By: Ms. Nandini Nair, Content-Head at Lawgic
