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Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:82367 Court No. - 86 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. ANTICIPATORY BAIL APPLICATION U/S 482 BNSS No. - 1977 of 2025 Applicant :- Lakshmi Devi Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Applicant :- Meera,Nabi Ullah Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Dr. Gautam Chowdhary,J.
1. Heard Ms. Meera, learned counsel for the applicant, Shri Purshottam Upadhyaya, learned A.G.A. for the State and perused the record. 2. The present application has been moved seeking anticipatory bail in Case Crime no. 224 of 2024, under Sections 80, 85 of B.N.S. and Section 3/4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, Police Station Ram Nagar, District Varanasi, with the prayer that in the event of arrest, applicant may be released on anticipatory bail. 3. The F.I.R. was lodged by the informant with the allegation that he had solemnized marriage of his daughter with the son of applicant. Soon after the marriage all the accused persons started making demand of five lakh rupees and on account of non fulfillment thereof, the daughter of the informant was subjected to cruelty and mental agony. On 06.12.2024 the husband of the informant beaten his wife brutally, on account of which she hanged herself on the next day. 4. It has been argued by the learned counsel for the applicant that applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the case. The applicant is aged about 67 years and is suffering from various ailments. She was out of station on the date of incident. She has never demanded any dowry and she cannot be said to be beneficiary of the dowry demanded. The applicant has an apprehension that she may be arrested in the above-mentioned case, whereas there is no credible evidence against her. It has further been submitted that applicant has no criminal antecedents and that no coercive process has been issued against the applicant so far. It was also submitted that applicant undertakes to co-operate during investigation and trial and he would appear as and when required by the investigating agency or Court. It has been stated
that in case, the applicant is granted anticipatory bail, she shall not misuse the liberty of bail and will co-operate with the investigation and would obey all conditions of bail. 5. Learned A.G.A. has opposed the application for anticipatory bail. 6.
It may be stated that in case of Siddharam Satlingappa Mhetre v. State of Maharashtra, (2011) 1 SCC 694, it has been held by Hon'ble Supreme Court that while deciding anticipatory bail, Court must consider nature and gravity of accusation, antecedent of accused, possibility of accused to flee from justice and that Court must evaluate entire available material against the accused carefully and that the exact role of the accused has also to be taken into consideration. 7. In the instant case, considering the settled principle of law regarding anticipatory bail, submissions of the learned counsel for the parties, nature of accusation, role of applicant and all attending
facts and circumstances of the case and considering the gravity of accusation, without expressing any opinion on merit of the case, no case for anticipatory bail is made out.
8. The anticipatory bail application is rejected.
Order Date :- 17.5.2025 Mustaqeem. Digitally signed by :- MOHD MUSTAQEEM KHAN High Court of Judicature at Allahabad