The Supreme Court today dismissed the petitions challenging the Allahabad High Court's verdict granting bail to Uttar Pradesh politician Amanmani Tripathi, who is accused of murdering his wife.
A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan rejected the appeals filed by the CBI and the mother of the victim, observing that reasons given by the high court while granting bail to Tripathi, who was earlier expelled from Samajwadi Party, cannot be termed "perverse".
"No doubt, the offence with which respondent number two (Tripathi) is charged is a serious one. That by itself cannot be the ground to outrightly deny the benefit of bail if there are other overwhelming circumstances justifying grant of bail," the bench said.
Tripathi's wife Sara was killed in July 2015 and it was initially believed that she had died in a road accident near Sirsaganj in Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
Later, the victim's mother alleged that she was murdered by her husband and it was not an accident but a pre-planned plot to get rid of her. She had lodged an FIR but the case was later transferred to the CBI after which Tripathi was arrested on November 25, 2016.
Tripathi, son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician Amarmani Tripathi who has denied all allegations against him, had filed a bail application before the trial court which was rejected. Following this, he had moved the high court seeking bail.
The high court had on March 9 last year granted him bail while imposing several conditions on him, including he would not tamper with evidence and not pressurise prosecution witnesses.
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The CBI and victim's mother had thereafter approached the top court challenging the high court's order.
The probe agency and the victim's mother had argued before the top court that the report of the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) in the case clearly depicted that there was no likelihood of any such accident as narrated by Tripathi keeping in view the condition of the car and the place of the accident.
However, Tripathi's counsel had argued that it was a road accident in which the victim had died and the high court had rightly exercised its discretion in granting bail to him.
The apex court observed that the high court had taken into consideration the relevant factors while granting bail to him.
Regarding the issue of alleged threat to the victim's mother, the bench said the high court has already given liberty to the prosecution to apply for cancellation of bail in case any such threat was extended or there was violation of any bail condition.