Supreme Court sets aside anticipatory bail to 3 accused in case of murder by setting ablaze man for love affairs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has objected to a Patna High Court's order, granting anticipatory bail to three persons accused of killing a young man by setting him ablaze by pouring kerosene, over his alleged love affair with a girl of their family.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B Varale found the High Court erred in granting the relief to the accused in a cryptic and mechanical manner without considering the materials available on record.

In an order on December 20, the court noted the chargesheet clearly stated that the case has been found true against all the accused persons of such a heinous offence of murder by pouring kerosene oil and setting the deceased on fire.

"We fail to understand as to how the High Court had granted relief of anticipatory bail to the respondents in an offence under Section 302 of IPC," the bench said.

The court allowed an appeal by Shambhu Debnath, the complainant against the High Court's order of July 25, 2023, granting pre-arrest bail to Ratan Devnath, Lalita Devi and Rina Devi.

Referring Sushila Aggarwal Vs State (NCT of Delhi) (2020), the bench said the court which had laid down the factors to be considered for grant of anticipatory bail such as the nature and gravity of the offences, the role attributed to the applicant, and the facts of the case, and special conditions.

The court considered the law laid down and the fact that there are specific averments in the FIR against all the accused persons including the respondents herein that all of them had set the deceased on fire with an intention to kill him.

An FIR was lodged on January 13, 2023 with Motihari Mufasil police station that at 7 pm by Shambhu Debnath, claiming he heard the ruckus and saw that the body of his 20-year-old nephew, Mukesh Kumar, was ablazed.

As the appellant asked his injured nephew, he was told that Sindhu Devnath, Sanjit Devnath, Ratan Devnath (respondent no 2 herein), Lalita Devi (respondent no 3 herein), Sunil Devnath and Rina Devi (respondent no 4 herein) had caught hold of him, whereby Sindhu Devnath told him that the appellant’s nephew loved his daughter and all of them started beating and abusing him.

It was alleged all of the accused persons, with an intention to kill, poured kerosene oil over the appellant’s nephew and set his body on fire. The victim succumbed to the burn injuries on January 17, 2023.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge rejected the anticipatory bail on March 24, 2023.

The police filed the chargesheet against Sindhu Devnath, categorically mentioning that from the investigation so far, the case has been found true against all the accused persons named in the FIR and subsidiary investigation of the case was still pending then.

The three accused approached the High Court, which granted them anticipatory bail.

During the hearing, the court issued NBW as they failed to appear before it even after the service.

After setting aside the bail order, the court ordered them to appear before the trial court within four weeks.