The Supreme Court asked the Director-General of the Police, Bihar, and the Registrar-General of the High Court of Patna to clarify why the arrest of a man accused in a dowry death case took 21 years.
The departed woman's brother lodged the FIR on 2 February 1999 claiming that the husband and his family used to harass her for dowry. He said that without informing the wife's side of the family, the husband and his family had completed the funeral rituals. After ten years, in the case against all the accused listed in the FIR, a charge sheet was filed. The final report notes that necessary evidence against all the accused identified in the FIR has been made available.
Earlier, his pre-bail appeal was rejected by the supreme court. It was noted that the case journal cited the lady's discovery of a very fatal substance in the viscera test. The suspect was arrested on June 7, 2020. His bail appeals were denied by the Court of Sessions and the High Court.
The three-judge Bench of Justice N. V. Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Aniruddha Bose, at the hearing of the complaint lodged by the husband, claimed that the deliberate delay in handling the inquiry and hearing of the suspect was highly troubling, for which the reasons were unclear. The court found it quite 'alarming' that the police took no legal action against the suspect. A terrible state of affairs was illustrated by the facts put on the documents.
The court while terminating the bail appeal issued notice to the Director-General of Police of Bihar and the Registrar General of Patna High Court. The court ordered them to present a report about the details of the case along with the reasons behind such an unreasonable delay.
