1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 1587 OF 2009 1] Abul Fayyaz s/o Altab Patel 2] Altaf S/o Rasul Patel 3] Sow. Mulayambee w/o Altaf Patel 4] Mustakheem @ Pasha S/o Altaf Patel All residents of Village Lamjana Tq. Ausa, Dist. Latur 5] Smt. Raisabee w/o Raheman Patel, R/o Bhusani, Tq. Omerga, Dist. Osmanabad .. Applicants Versus The State of Maharashtra To be served through Assistant Govt. Pleader High Court, Aurangabad .. Respondent Mr. V.N. Damle, Advocate with Mr. R.B. Deshmukh, Advocate for the applicants Mr. J.S. Gavane, APP for the respondent-State CORAM : A.V. NIRGUDE, J. DATED : 10th JUNE, 2009 ORAL ORDER:- 1] The applicants are members of one family and are accused of killing wife of the applicant 2 no.1. From the prosecution papers, the following facts and material is found:- On 12.1.2009, the applicant no.3, who happens to be the mother of the applicant no.1 and the mother in law of the deceased, noticed the footwear and sickle belonging to the deceased near a well. She raised alarm, suspecting that the deceased had accidentally fallen in the well. The nearby farmers gathered at the spot and they started probing the well with the help of a stick. Till evening they could not find the dead body of the deceased but in the night at about 9.00 pm in second attempt, someone noticed the dead body of the deceased in the well. In the morning on 13.1.2009, the Police came and fished out the dead body. It was noticed that the deceased had several injuries on her person, indicating homicidal death. The father of the deceased promptly filed a complaint alleging that the applicants had been harassing the deceased over demands of dowry since long and they had killed her etc. The neighbours also stated that they had seen the applicants harassing the deceased over dowry demands etc. The dead body of the deceased was sent for post mortem 3 and the Doctor certified that the deceased died of homicide. The Doctor also noticed that the ears and top of the nose were cut off prior to her death. During the course of investigation the applicant no.1 produced a knife from his house. This is the only material against the applicants. It is the case of the prosecution that probably during the night between 11th and 12th January, 2009, while the deceased was in the house of the applicants they assaulted her, killed her and then dragged her dead body towards the well and threw it there but unfortunately there is nothing on record to substantiate this suspicion. 2] The learned Judge of the lower Court while rejecting the application for bail, mentioned that this was probably a custodial death, but I think it is obviously not a custodial death because the dead body was not found in the house. 3] On perusal of the chargesheet with the help of the learned counsels appearing for the parties I realised that though this is a ghastly case of 4 murder, the investigation agency including the Medical Officer took their task very lightly and casually. If it is the case of the prosecution that the deceased was assaulted elsewhere, probably inside the house of the applicants, there should have been deeper probe to ascertain as to whether any signs of violence are found inside the house; such as blood stains etc. 4] The applicants, I think are entitled to bail. The applicants are released on bail of Rs.10,000/- (Rs.Ten Thousand) each with one surety each in the like amount. 5] Application disposed of. (A.V. NIRGUDE, J.) arp/10june9/cr1587.09