The Kerala High Court on Monday, January 31, granted bail to the husband of a 21-year-old law student who died by suicide in November last year. In a note, Mofiya Parveen blamed her husband Suhail, his parents and the Circle Inspector of the Aluva police station. Justice Gopinath P said that since Suhail has spent more than 65 days in custody and the final report has been filed in the case, his continued detention was not necessary.
With this observation, the court granted him the relief subject to certain conditions which would be available in the detailed order. Suhail’s parents were granted bail by the court on January 4, on which date it had denied him the same relief saying the allegations against him were very serious. Subsequently, he had moved a second bail plea claiming that the Circle Inspector K Sudheer must be held responsible, as he reportedly behaved rudely with Mofiya when she tried to file a complaint against her husband.
The Suhail and his parents were arrested on November 24 last year, and a case registered against them under Sections 304B (dowry death), 498A (dowry harassment), 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. While the maximum punishment for dowry death is life imprisonment, it is three years' jail term for dowry harassment and 10 years for abetment of suicide.
In her suicide note, Mofia had alleged that she faced dowry harassment and domestic abuse at the hands of Suhail and his parents. When she tried to give a complaint about the same to the police, the CI had purportedly called in Suhail’s family as well in a bid to come to a compromise, despite her saying that she would not record her statement in Suhail’s presence. The officer spoke to them in her husband's presence and also spoke inappropriately and rudely to him and his daughter, the father told the media and added that it was the officer's conduct that demoralised her. Mofiya died hours after the incident at the station.
The incident had created an uproar in the state and the officer was relieved of his charge and later suspended. However, a chargesheet submitted by the Crime Branch recently does not name him. Mofiya’s father had earlier told TNM that they would go to court against Sudheer’s exclusion from the chargesheet.