Convicted of murder, on bail to look after victim’s son
SOURCE - https://www.indianexpress.com/news/convicted-of-murder-on-bail-to-look-after-victims-son/752020/2
Mallama Harake, 50, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 for the murder of her daughter-in-law Suvarna, was recently granted bail by the Bombay High Court after she contended that there was nobody to look after Suvarna’s son, who suffers from epilepsy.
The five-year-old boy’s mother was murdered in August 2006. A sessions court had found Suvarna’s husband Siddharam Harake, 33, employed with the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), his father Vijay and mother Mallama guilty of harassing and killing her owing to unfulfilled demands for dowry. The three were sentenced to life imprisonment.
On April 30, 2009, the trio was convicted by a sessions court under Sections 498-A (husband and his relatives subjecting a married woman to cruelty), 304-B (dowry death), 302 (punishment for murder), 504 (insult to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, in Pune for torturing and killing Suvarna as her family had not been able to pay the Rs. 50,000 demanded by the Harakes.
Suvarna got married to Siddharam on December 11, 2001, in Beed and according to the statements of witnesses recorded by the police after her death, she had told her family and friends that she was being illtreated and abused for dowry.
On August 4, 2006, Vijay informed Suvarna’s father Umakant Kathare that she had fallen in the kitchen the night before and has been taken to the hospital. Suvarna succumbed to her injuries on August 11, 2006, and the post-mortem report revealed she had 11 injuries and had died because of “compression of the neck”.
The trial court had refused to accept that her death was accidental and held the trio guilty of murder.
While challenging their conviction in the high court, Mallama had sought bail while the appeal proceedings are pending before the court.
Additional public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh told the court Mallama had already been denied bail by the trial court more than once. She added that the trial court had observed that “the accused must have mercilessly beaten and assaulted Suvarna. They hit her head and pressed her neck and she died of suffocation”.
The court felt they needed to take a “broader view” in the interest of the child and granted bail to Mallama. The child was being looked after by his aunts since his father and grandparents’ arrest.
