‘Travesty of justice’: Supreme Court sets aside Allahabad HC bail order to man in dowry death case

As per the prosecution, Sushma, who married Devraj on March 1, 2025, was found dead under mysterious circumstances at her matrimonial home within three months. After she died, the police registered a First Information Report (FIR) and sent her body for a postmortem examination, which revealed that the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation.

“We fail to understand, on plain reading of the impugned order, as to what the High Court is trying to convey. What weighed with the High Court in exercising its discretion in favour of the accused for the purpose of granting bail in a very serious crime like dowry death? What did the High Court do? All that the High Court did was to record the submission of the defence counsel and thereafter proceeded to observe that the accused had been in jail since 27.07.2025, and there being no criminal history, he was entitled to bail. Accordingly, bail came to be granted,” the SC said.

“We do not propose to observe anything on merits because we are conscious of the fact that the trial is in progress. However, at the same time, we are sure that the impugned order passed by the High Court is unsustainable in law,” said the apex court.

“It was expected of the High Court to consider the bail application keeping in mind:- (i) The nature of the alleged crime; (ii) The punishment provided by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 for the alleged crime; (iii) The relations between the accused and the deceased, i.e., being husband and wife; (iv) The place where the incident occurred; (v) The postmortem report indicating that the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation and most importantly, the statutory presumption of commission of offence as envisaged under Section 118 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, erstwhile Section 113-B of the Evidence Act, 1872,” the bench added.