HC grants bail to 3 men held for setting afire rape victim in UP

The Allahabad high court has granted bail to three people arrested for allegedly setting afire a rape victim in Unnao, doubting her dying declaration.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh of the Lucknow bench of the high court gave the relief, also saying that merely because the case involving the woman's killing had received huge media attention, an accused cannot be allowed to suffer indefinitely unless proven guilty.

The judge also said forget about the question of the beginning of the trial, the police have not even filed the charge sheet in the case it dating back to December 2019, leaving the accused to languish in jail all the while.

Justice Singh passed the order on bail pleas of the three accused, Umesh Kumar Bajpai, Ram Kishor Trivedi and Hari Shanker Trivedi alias Chunnu, all Unnao residents, in the case which was lodged at the district's Bihar police station.

According to the FIR, she was allegedly raped by two people, Shivam and Shubham, who had been facing trial in the rape case in a Rai Bareli court.

In the FIR, she said she was set afire by Shivan and Subham and their three other relatives -- Umesh, Ram Kishor and Hari Shanker -- while she was on her way house to the railway station to catch a train to Rai Barely to attend the trial of the case on December 5, 2019.

The woman had died later in the hospital.

In his order granting bail to the three accused, Justice Singh said, “It is true that the said incident received huge media attention and the complainant and his family received more than adequate financial aid from the government.”

“If an accused has committed an offence, he must be punished adequately under the provisions of the law but merely because a case has received publicity and media attention, a person should not be made to suffer unless he is guilty of committing the crime,” he added.

During the hearing on the bail pleas, Justice Singh found that even a charge sheet was not filed in the case of burning the woman, forget about the start of its trial.

The bench also noticed several lacunae in the woman's statement given before her death.

The train to Rai Bareli that the woman said she was going to catch at the railway station stood cancelled since December 3, Justice Singh pointed out.

Moreover, the victim had said she was assaulted by a danda and knife on her head and neck but during the postmortem, no such injuries were found by the doctor.

Considering the matter in detail, the bench observed that it was a fit case for bail. 

The woman had later died of the injuries received in the incident.

In the course of hearing, the bench found that even a charge sheet was not filed in that case, not to talk of starting trial thereof.

Similarly, the train was cancelled from December 3, 2019 and even on that day the train had remained cancelled.

Moreover, the victim had said that she was also assaulted by a 'danda' and knife on her head and neck but in the post-mortem , no injury was found by the doctor.

The bench also went through the whatsapp messages with her lawyer Mahendra Singh Rathore which proved that she had physical contact with several persons.

Considering the matter in detail, the bench observed that it was a fit case for bail.