Gulam Nabi vs State (Through Sho Ps Khajuri Khas)

Girish Kathpalia, J

The accused/applicant seeks anticipatory bail in case FIR No. 468/2024 of PS Khajuri Khas for offence under Section 117(2)/79/351(3)/64(1)/74/3(5) BNS.

1.1 This anticipatory bail application came up for the first hearing on 21.10.2024 before the predecessor bench and thereafter continued getting adjourned before different benches. On 21.10.2024, going by the submission of learned counsel for the accused/applicant that the allegations are ex facie unbelievable, the learned predecessor bench directed that subject to the accused/applicant joining investigation, he shall not be arrested till next date. That order continues on date to date basis till date. Along with 179 such  old  pending  bail  applications,  this  application  also  was  transferred  to this bench.

1.2 Today is the first hearing before me.

It appears that till date, there is no status report of the State to oppose this anticipatory bail application. On this aspect, learned APP for State expresses anguish that despite repeated reminders, the investigating officers and even the SHOs concerned do not respond. Even in the present case, it is submitted by learned APP that till yesterday he kept taking up the matter with  the  concerned  SHO  of  Khajuri  Khas  for  status  report,  but  to  no  avail. Rather, even IO of the case has not been sent and instead one Sub Inspector Priti has appeared but without the investigation file.

It  is  being  very  frequently  observed  that  the  status  reports  are  either not filed or the same are just handed across the board, which causes unnecessary adjournments. That is not how liberty of an individual has to be dealt with. It seems that the higher authorities of police are completely unaware about this aspect of working at grassroot levels.

Further, it has been repeatedly pointed out that few years ago, the regular practice in bail matters was that the investigating officers used to meet  the  prosecutor  and  brief  her/him  before  the  court  sitting  commenced. In  such  circumstances,  prosecutors  used  to  be  fully  equipped  to  oppose  or not oppose the bail applications. But now, it is observed that what to say of briefing the prosecutors in advance, the investigators would either not appear or appear without file or would try to brief the prosecutor inside the courtroom even subsequent to commencement of court sitting.

In the present case, conduct of Delhi Police in not filing status report till date  and not  sending  the investigating officer to  assist the  court  and the prosecutor conveys that police is not interested in opposing this anticipatory bail application. But that disinterest should not be a ground for this Court to ignore the nature of allegations.

The allegations against the accused/applicant are very serious. It would  be  apposite  to  extract  the  English  translation  of  the  FIR  as  annexed with the present anticipatory bail application:

“To,  The  SHO  ,  Delhi  110094,  Sir,  I  GXXX  w/o  Dxxx  age  XX  years residing  at  H.no  XXXXXX  I  got  married  to  Dxxx  s/o  Mo  Ejaz  on  5th July 2023, We have been married for almost one year and two months now.  I  have a  son  Haider  s/o  Dxxx,  age  x months.  The  thing  is  that after some time of marriage, my husband and in-laws started harassing me. My husband used to beat me on small small things and threatened to give me divorce. Out of fear of divorce, I told these things to my mother-in-law (Rahila) and father-in-law (Ejaz), then they started abusing me and said that whatever he does to you, he does it for the right thing, he will beat you like this only. I complained many times to my elder sister-in-law also, she also said that he beats me for the right reason, why don't you make husband happy, if you do this, then all of us and Dxxxx will not trouble you nor will we beat you.  My  husband  told  me many  times  that  whatever  my  brother-in- law wants from you, do it and make him happy, if you don't do this then I will kill you and divorce you My brother-in-law Bilal also touched me with wrong intentions many times and made obscene gestures. Sometimes he used to touch my chest and sometimes my waist. When I used to oppose, my in-laws would unite and blame me. They  used  to  say  that  this  is  what  happens  in  our place  and  you  will also have to live like this. I tried many times to tell all this to my family  members,  but  my  in-laws  neither  let  me  talk  to  my  family  nor allowed me to meet them. If I tried to tell my family members, my husband, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law would beat me up. Today on 16/09/2024 at around 10:00 or 10:30 I was in my room, my husband was also present there, then my brother-in-law Naved came and caught me from behind and said forcefully, Bhabhi, please make me  happy  today,  my  husband  was  watching  all  this  and  said, do  as  my  brother-in-law  has  said,  otherwise  I will  kill  you,  when  I opposed them, then both of them together beat me badly with kicks, punches and slaps. Meanwhile, my brother-in-law Naveed put his hand  in  the  salwar  I was  wearing  and  put  his  finger  in  my  private part and forced himself on me with wrong intentions. When I opposed, both of them beat me badly. I also shouted a lot but no one from  my  in-laws'  house  came  to  save  me  nor  did  they  let  me  leave the house. After all this, my brother-inlaw left from there. The next morning I  told my husband that you all have done wrong to me and I have to go to the police station. On hearing this, he beat me again And they all together threw me out of the house. They gave me my son and said, now take him also and go away from here. If you come here again, we will kill you.

Remaining part of action taken by the police.”

(emphasis supplied)

Learned counsel for accused/applicant submits that the FIR alleges false allegations and it was only a matrimonial dispute, which has got settled now between the prosecutrix and her husband. Learned counsel for complainant de facto strongly opposes the bail application, expressing no information about any such alleged settlement.

Considering the above circumstances, especially the nature of allegations, I do not find it a fit case to grant anticipatory bail. The anticipatory bail application is dismissed. Accompanying application stands disposed of.

The accused/applicant is directed to surrender before the Investigating Officer by 05:00pm tomorrow (21.03.2026).

Copy of this order be sent to the DCP (Legal Cell) of Delhi Police through the Standing Counsel with the hope that the prosecution of bail matters shall be streamlined.