On Wednesday, a Delhi Court has granted bail to a woman, accused of dowry death and causing abortion of a three-month-old foetus, on the account of her being lodged in the Tihar jail with her 21 months old son in view of her judicial custody.
Additional Sessions Judge Vishal Gogne granted bail to Suman Kumari while citing that condemning the infant to spend his early childhood in jail would be a violation of his right to healthy development as an individual.
Suman Kumari was among those accused of dowry harassment leading to the death of a woman. Kumari was in judicial custody since 9 December 2020 in a case registered on the complaint of the father of the deceased, a woman who was married to Suman’s brother-in-law. The FIR was registered under Section 489A, 304B, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
As per sources, the judge noted that though the gravity of allegations against the accused cannot be discounted and they do “operate as a dissuading consideration in the matter of bail being granted”. However, the court is inclined to view with “greater appreciation and empathy” the ground for bail because of the “often forgotten victims of incarceration”, the children of imprisoned parents.
Further, the court relied on various provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 to state that “detention of children should be a matter of last resort and for the shortest period of time.”
