The Bombay High Court has granted anticipatory bail to a woman, her sister, and her mother in a case involving allegations of threatening, blackmail, and abetment of the suicide of a man in June this year in Maharashtra's Solapur district.
The court highlighted the lack of substantial evidence to determine the trigger behind the incident and observed that the allegations of a money demand were "far-fetched".
According to case details, the man who died by suicide had developed a relationship with the accused woman, a resident of Pandharpur, after his marriage failed.
It was alleged that the woman and her family began harassing the man and demanded around Rs 10 lakh from him under the threat of filing criminal cases against him. The man allegedly died by suicide in June this year, and a case was filed by one of his friends.
The complaint claimed that, starting May 30, the deceased had informed his friend about the threats and pressure from the woman and her family. It was further alleged that, under these circumstances, the man felt he had no alternative but to take his life.
Advocate Piyush Toshnival, representing the woman and her family, argued that the allegations were baseless as no complaint had been lodged against her or her family regarding the alleged harassment. Toshnival also referred to the woman’s bank statements, which showed that two days before the alleged suicide, she had transferred Rs 30,000 to the man.
"This falsifies the claims of the investigating authority and the informant that the applicants were demanding money from the deceased," the advocate argued, adding that the accused--all women-- are ready to co-operate with the investigation.
On the allegation of delay in filing an FIR over the harassment by the woman, Additional Public Prosecutor Mayur Sonavane informed the court that the incident was initially reported as an accidental death. However, subsequent enquiries revealed that the applicants had been threatening and blackmailing the deceased, leaving him with no alternative but to die by suicide.
However, Justice Manish Pitale did not consider this argument for delay in registration of the FIR and said, "this Court is of the opinion that delay of more than three months is a factor to be taken into consideration".
The bench observed that while there were allegations of threats and blackmailing since May, there was a "lack of material to indicate what triggered the incident shortly before the deceased took the extreme step".
Additionally, the bench noted that, even on the day of the suicide, the accused woman and the deceased were in contact, and the two were in a relationship.
The High Court further held that the allegation of a Rs 10 lakh demand by the accused appeared "far-fetched." It pointed out that there were monetary transactions between the deceased and the woman; however, "such amounts are small and prima facie do not correlate with the allegations of blackmailing and threats" made against the woman.
Published On:
Dec 16, 2024
English (US) ·