22-Year-Old Girl Impelled To Commit Crime Due To Debt: Kerala HC Grants Bail In Child Kidnapping Case
The Kerala High Court granted bail to a 22-year-old woman accused of allegedly kidnapping a child for ransom, observing that she was “impelled” to commit the crime due to her debts.
The Court noted that the accused had been in judicial custody for the last seven months when the investigation was also over. The accused was arrested along with her parents for allegedly conspiring to kidnap a minor female child for ransom due to financial crisis.
A Single Bench of Justice C.S. Dias observed, “In the case on hand, as already observed above, there is no doubt that the allegations against the accused are serious and heinous. The petitioner is alleged to have committed the offences along with her parents. Prima facie materials show that the accused are in debt, which has impelled them to commit the above crime.”
Advocate Suman Chakravarthy appeared for the petitioner, while Sr. PP C.K. Suresh represented the respondent.
The prosecution's case alleged offences under Sections 120B, 468, 471, 363, 323, 308, 328, 506(ii), 346, 347, 364A, 417, and 201 read with Sec.34 of the IPC and Sections 77 and 84 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act).
The prosecution’s allegation against the accused was that she was facing a grave financial crisis which led to hatching a conspiracy to kidnap the 6-year-old victim. The prosecution alleged that the accused, along with her accused parents, forcefully abducted the child victim from near her house and wrongfully confined her in their house for ransom.
The Court relied on a Supreme Court’s decision in Sheikh Javed Iqbal @ Ashfaq Ansari @ Javed Ansari v. State of Uttar Pradesh wherein it was held that bail cannot be denied to an accused solely on the ground that the charge is serious. “Once it is evident that a timely trial is not possible and the accused has suffered incarceration for a sufficient period of time, the Courts should ordinarily be obligated to enlarge the accused on bail,” it was held.
“In the same decision, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has reminded the High Courts and Courts of Session that when the accused is a lady, the provisions under Sec.437 of the Code of Criminal Procedure have to be applied,” the Court remarked.
The Court noted that the allegation against the accused was that she had hit the hand of the brother of the victim and facilitated in speeding away with the car.
Consequently, the Court held, “In the result, the application is allowed by directing the petitioner to be released on bail on her executing a bond for Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh only) with two solvent sureties each for the like sum.”
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the bail application.
Cause Title: Anupama Padmakumar v. State Of Kerala (Neutral Citations: 2024:KER:57237)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Advocates Suman Chakravarthy, V.Renjith Shankar, Shiju Abraham Verghis, Prabhu Vijayakumar and Brejitha Unnikrishnan
Respondent: Sr. PP C.K Suresh; ADGP Grashious Kuriakose