Delhi HC denies bail to man for live-in partner’s murder, notes body cremated without informing kin

The Delhi High Court has dismissed the bail plea of a man accused of murdering his live-in partner and cremating her without informing her family.

Justice Madhu Jain said the material on record prima facie indicates that besides causing the death of the woman, the accused also misled the police and gave an incorrect statement to the victim’s relatives.

Considering the gravity of the offence and the allegations levelled against the accused, the high court said no ground was made out for bail.

“The material placed on record prima facie indicates that, not only did the applicant (accused) caused death of the deceased but that he also furnished incorrect information to her relatives and misled the police, resulting in a delay in registration of the FIR,” the court said and dismissed the bail plea on September 3.

According to the prosecution, the victim woman was residing with the accused man since May 2021, and she died on the intervening night of April 14-15, 2022.

It was alleged that the accused cremated her at Nigam Bodh Ghat on April 15, 2022, without informing her parental family and without any medical examination or post-mortem.

A case of murder and destruction of evidence was registered at Farsh Bazar police station on the complaint of the woman’s father.

The man, who has been in custody since April 22, 2022, sought bail on the ground that he has been in jail for four years and that out of 26 witnesses, only four have been examined so far.

The counsel for the accused claimed that the man had informed the family members about the woman’s death and that the cremation had taken place at Nigam Bodh Ghat and not at an isolated location. He said the man had also taken the woman to a doctor a day before her death.

The prosecution opposed the bail, saying the accused neither informed the victim’s family about her death nor disclosed the correct facts to them, and instead falsely represented that she had left the house.

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It was further alleged that the accused furnished false particulars at the cremation ground and claimed that the woman had died of a heart attack, despite not having taken her to a doctor or calling one to the place where she died.

The prosecutor further contended that the accused took the woman’s body for cremation before even informing the police and without any medical examination.