Death abetment case: Punjab and Haryana High Court denies bail to woman who ‘befriended’ bouncer on Instagram

Disclosure in investigation following FIR 

• Photocopies of phone chats between the victim and the petitioner were collected, showing a continuous conversation among the petitioner, the victim, his mother, and his sister. 
• It was found that the petitioner used to chat on Instagram with three different IDs. 
• It was also revealed that the petitioner, who was married to one Amrit Pal, was in custody in connection with another case and was lodged in the central jail of Ludhiana. 

• She was joined into investigation of this case in February 2025 and was formally arrested. 
• During interrogation, she made a disclosure statement claiming that she was a divorcee.
• She also stated in her statement that she had started maintaining a relationship with the victim and started demanding money and costly gifts from him. 
• She used to extend threats to him that if he did not give money or gifts to her, she would involve him in a case of rape. 
• She further disclosed that when the victim told her that he had no money to spare and was left with no alternative but to kill himself, she had told him to do so out of rage, and later came to know that he had actually committed suicide.
• She also disclosed that previously, in a similar manner, she had been extracting money from one Makhan Singh, in connection with whose death another FIR had been registered against her.

Court’s analysis 

• The allegations against the petitioner are “serious in nature”, pointing out that she maintained a relationship with the victim Dimple and then started blackmailing him, thereby extorting money from him.
• It was also alleged that when the victim was unable to pay the same, she used to extend threats to him to involve him in cases of rape, etc. 
• It is also placed on record that the accused also used to make calls to him repeatedly and mentally torture him. 
• The court noted the printout of chats that had taken place between the victim and the petitioner and found that the chats show that the victim had sent a message to him that she had compelled to commit suicide on the day of his death. 
• The allegations, prima facie, suggest that the said offence has been committed by the petitioner. 
• Considering the nature of the accusations, the quantum of sentence which the conviction may entail and the attendant facts and circumstances, the petitioner cannot be released on bail. 

What was the case?

• The complainant, father of the victim, Surender Kumar, stated that his younger son Dimple was working as a bouncer in a hospital. 
• He told him that one Priya, who was working in a shop at Ambala, had been blackmailing him and he was going through stress owing to the various demands of he ras he failed to fulfil the same.
• The victim’s father, along with his wife, as claimed, pacified him and had a conversation with the accused. Priya. 

• About five days later, the father claimed that his son again shared with him that he was unable to fulfil her demands and could end his life and was again pacified by the complainant.
• However, in November 2024, the father alleged that his son consumed some pesticide in their agricultural fields and made a call to his mother. 
• The complainant, along with others, rushed to the spot, and the victim was taken to the hospital, but was declared dead, the father claimed. 
• The father filed the case alleging that the accused had abetted his son to kill himself. 

Petitioner’s plea: Innocent and has minor children

• Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Tarun Sharma argued that his client has been falsely implicated in this case. 
• She has been in custody since long time and has minor children. 
• Sharma further submitted that the trial will take considerable time to conclude. 
• He emphasised that there are no chances of her intimidating the witnesses or absconding and stated that she deserves to be released on bail. 

‘Leading innocent persons to die’

• Assistant Advocate General Neeraj Poswal and advocate Rajender Kumar, representing the complainant, argued that the allegations against the petitioner are serious in nature, which make out a case for the commission of the subject offence against the petitioner. 
• They emphasised that there are chances of her intimidating the witnesses or absconding if the granted the benefit of bail. 
• They also pointed out that her antecedents are not clean and she may commit similar offences again, thereby leading innocent persons to die.