[Law Student Suicide] Kerala High Court grants bail to accused husband

The Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to the accused husband of Mofiya Parveen, a young law student who recently died by suicide [Mohammed Suhail & Ors. v State of Kerala & Anr.]..Justice Gopinath P granted bail as he opined that continued detention may not be necessary as Suhail has already spent more than 65 days in jail and because the final report in the crime has already been filed. "I am of the opinion that since the accused has been in custody for 65 days, he can be released on bail, subject to conditions," the court said in its order..On November 23, 2021, Parveen, a 2nd year LLB student, took her own life and left behind a suicide note allegedly blaming abuse and dowry harassment at the hands of her husband and in-laws. She had also named a police officer in the note for his alleged inaction on her complaints.Subsequently, the accused husband and parents were booked for offences punishable under Sections 498A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 304B (dowry death) and 306 (abetment of suicide) read with 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).The petitioner claimed that even though the two had entered into marriage through a nikah, the subsequent ceremony of valeema was not conducted and that she had rarely lived at the husband's house.Suhail also alleged that he had divorced Mofiya by pronouncing talaq after several rounds of mediation were purportedly held before their Mahallu Jama-ath.Further, it was submitted that the the proximate cause of her suicide may be attributed to the police officer named in the suicide note but not to the accused husband or his parents..On January 4, 2021, the Court granted bail to the accused in-laws of Mofiya but had denied bail to Suhail on account of the serious allegations against him."While it would not be proper to indicate in detail the nature of the allegations raised against the first petitioner , it must be stated that the allegations are serious and those allegations, if proved correct would indicate that the deceased had been treated with utmost cruelty by the first petitioner," the Court had said while declining bail to Suhail.Subsequently, he approached the Court with a fresh bail application which was vehemently opposed on behalf of the de-facto complainant (Mofiya's father) as well as by Additional Public Prosecutor P Narayanan..21-year-old Mofiya Parveen Dilshad hailed from Aluva, Kerala and was pursuing an LLB course at the time of her death.Mofiya had met her husband, Mohammed Suhail, on Facebook and Suhail had supposedly said that he had a job in the UAE, and that he was a vlogger. Soon after the wedding, Suhail allegedly demanded large sums of money from Mofiya and when such demands went unmet, he purportedly turned abusive.She had previously approached the police with complaints in this regard but they were apparently disregarded with one police officer, who she named in the suicide note, summoning both families and reprimanding her.The same night, Mofiya was found hanging in her room.Soon after the incident, the police officer named in the suicide note was removed from the post of Aluva East Station House Officer by the District Police Chief.Interestingly, he had actually been transferred to Aluva by way of punishment for his alleged mishandling of the Uthra murder case, in which the woman’s husband was recently convicted for murder by inducing a cobra bite.