Highly Improbable That Mother Would Murder Own Daughter For ₹90K: Punjab & Haryana High Court Grants Bail

The Punjab & Haryana High Court recently granted bail to a woman accused of allegedly killing her 9-year-old daughter in pursuit of her life insurance policy observing that it is highly improbable that a mother would kill her own daughter for Rs. 90,000. 

Justice Sandeep Moudgil also reiterated that apart from the right to life enshrined under Article 21, it has to be borne in mind that 'bail is a rule and jail is an exception.'

"The story put forth by the prosecution is not sufficient enough to inspire confidence of this Court at least for the purpose of considering the instant petition for regular bail...it is highly improbable that merely for Rs.90,000/-, a biological mother would kill her own daughter and over and above had to use 2 'chunnis' to strangulate a minor girl."

These observations were made in a second bail plea filed by the mother, who was booked for murder under Section 302, 120-B, 182, 34 of IPC. The FIR was seemingly initiated based on information provided by one H.C. Jatinder Singh regarding the death of a 9-year-old girl.

The post-mortem report suggested that her death was due to asphyxia resulting from smothering, which was deemed non-natural and sufficient to cause death in ordinary circumstances. According to the prosecution, the mother and stepfather had conspired to kill the child for the life insurance policy amount of Rs. 90,000 by strangulation using a 'chunni'.

The petitioner's counsel argued that the charges against her were based on a highly improbable story, given the mother-daughter relationship and the lack of incriminating evidence. Further, the custody certificate indicated that the petitioner had been in detention for over two years, with the trial proceedings almost concluded.

Additionally, it was argued that the petitioner had a clean record, making it unlikely that she would commit such a crime for a relatively small sum of money. The counsel submitted that the petitioner has been implicated in the commission of the offence solely based on the confession statement made before the police by her and the co-accused, who is her second husband.

The Court considered the principles of criminal jurisprudence, the right to life under Article 21 and the petitioner's clean record. Subsequently, it said that it could not ignore the fact that the petitioner was the biological mother of the deceased and also had another minor child aged 6 years. 

Moreover, the Court noted that upon asking about the FSL report, the state counsel had no answers and the report submitted did not reflect 'any kind of impression of fingerprints of the accused-petitioner or ingredients of the saliva of deceased if at all her mouth was gagged with 'Chunni'.

Accordingly, the court granted bail to the petitioner. However, it clarified that this decision did not reflect an opinion on the merits of the case.

Appearance: Amandeep Singh Rai, Advocate for the petitioner.

Rajiv Verma, DAG Punjab.

Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 176