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| Court rejects bail of SSP’s wife involved in murder case | | |
JAMMU, AUGUST-29 Principal Sessions Judge Jammu Mr. JR Kotwal today rejected bail application of accused Ratno Devi w/o Karnail Singh SSP along with seven other co-accused being tried for charge u/s 302/364/120-B RPC.
According to the police case that daughter of applicant had solemnized marriage with deceased Nitin Sharma against the will and wishes of her parents. Applicant Ratno Devi hatched a conspiracy with co-accused Naresh Kumar to do away with the deceased and settled a deal with him at Rs 1, 30,000. In furtherance of the conspiracy accused Naresh Kumar along with three other accused on August 24, 2005 kidnapped the deceased from Shastri Nagar Jammu and on the same day murdered him in an under construction house of accused Karnail Singh and accused Ratno Devi who are husband and wife and threw his dead-body in a canal. The occurrence led to registration of FIR No 79/2005 with P/S Gangyal Jammu and after completion of the investigation challan was presented in the Court on October 21, 2005.
The counsel for the applicants Sunil Sethi urged that as per the evidence recorded so far there should be no reason to believe that applicant was involved in the conspiracy to commit the offence of murder. He also submitted that even though the applicant stands charged u/s 302 RPC but being a woman bar to bail is not attracted in her case. On the other hand Special Public Prosecutor Raghu Mehta appearing for the state submitted that it has come in the evidence recorded so far that the police personnel involved in the commission of murder were working under the control of the applicant being the wife of accused Karnail Singh who at the relevant time was posted as SSP. It has come in the evidence that on the day of occurrence applicant had sent Rs 10,000 to accused Naresh Kumar towards the settled amount through another police personnel namely Sukhchain working under her control. He further submitted there is clear evidence that the vehicle used for kidnapping the deceased was a police vehicle allotted in the name of accused Karnail Singh and under the use of applicant who had even instructed for change of its number plate on the day of occurrence. There is evidence, which is yet to be recorded, that on the day of occurrence accused Naresh Kumar was in constant telephonic contact with the applicant.
Principal Sessions Judge after hearing both the side observed that prosecution evidence is based upon circumstantial evidence and the prosecution is in the thick of producing evidence to assemble the circumstances relied upon by it. This Court had already found a prima-facie case against the applicant while framing charge against her and as on today, given the nature of evidence already recorded and that to be recorded it is not possible to say that she is not involved in the conspiracy. As regard the operation of bar to bail against woman or other classified persons, law is well settled in case of their involvement in offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life, they are not entitled to bail as a matter of right. As per the prosecution case applicant-accused is central figure in hatching conspiracy to do away with the deceased only for the reason that deceased solemnized marriage with her daughter against the will and wishes of her parents. Given the nature of her involvement it would not be proper and in the interest of justice to exercise discretion in her favour. With these observations Court rejected bail of wife of SSP Karnail Singh. JNF
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