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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a woman booked for allegedly drowning her four-month-old daughter in a water tank in 2021.

The single judge bench of the high court comprising Justice MS Karnik was hearing a bail application moved by the woman booked for the murder of her child.

According, to the police the applicant who had an 8-year-old daughter was pressured to give birth to a male child by her in-laws. After she gave birth to the second daughter she was harassed by the family due to which she put her baby in the water and closed the lid.

Advocate Satyam Nimbalkar added that the police had recorded a statement from a homoeopathy professional that her husband used to visit him to seek medicines to ensure a male child.

He submitted that the woman was in jail for over a year without charges being framed against her and for the same reasons she should be granted bail.

The Additional Public Prosecutor opposed the bail application.

Justice Karnik while granting bail to the woman said that the case of the prosecution was based on circumstantial evidence.

Justice Karnik noted that further custody of the woman would be a pre-trial punishment.

“The applicant was arrested on 02.12.2021. The applicant is in custody for more than one year and eleven months. The trial is likely to take a long time to conclude as even the charge has not been framed. The applicant is a woman. Any further custody of the applicant will only be by way of pre-trial punishment,” the order states.

 Case title: Sapna Magdoom vs State of Maharashtra