Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to one Amanat Miyan, 45, who has been lodged in Dhanbad jail since January 2015 for killing his wife by strangulating her on the ground of having two daughter of marriageable age.
“It would be a great loss to the society if any untoward incident occurs,” observed a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Virender Singh and Justice AV Singh.
“There are two grown up daughters of this person and it will be great a slip for the society if he remains lodged in jail for a longer period of time,” the Bench observed. Amanat’s two daughters are in their 20s and living alone in their house alongwith their younger brother.
Amanat’s petition was among the 334 long pending appeal cases which have been shortlisted to be heard by the court during the summer break.
According to petitioner’s advocate, the court took a lenient view in the case as the incident occurred after 16 years of marriage and the appeal was not likely to be heard in the near future on account of pendency of other cases in the High Court.
Jaliban Bibi, 35, was killed on January 9, 2005 at Rangamati under Nirsa police station in Dhanbad following which his father-in-law lodged an FIR accusing him of killing his daughter to solemnise another marriage.
A long trial took place, where as many as 10 eyewitnesses were examined following which Amant Miyan was awarded life imprisonment on September 16, 2015. later, a criminal appeal was filed at the Jharkhand High Court.
The court granted bail to Amanat on the ground that he will have to appear before Nirsa Police Station in the first week of every month.
Meanwhile, the court also granted bail on human grounds to ailing Ashraf Ansari suffering from acute kidney and eye problem for getting himself treated at a better place. Ansari had been sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with ‘killing’ his wife Haseena Khatoon with a knife by a Fast Track Session Court of Giridih on March 13, 2007 and had been lodged in Hazaribagh Central jail for the last 11 years.
When petitioner’s nephew Md Waris argued the case before the division bench in person, it readily agreed to hear with a remark that one should not die in the jail for the lack of medical treatment and immediately sought for records in this connection.
“The Court today granted bail to Ashraf Ansari, whose prayer for suspension of sentence was declined at several stages and had been lodged in jail for more than 11 years. He was granted bail on medical grounds so that he could be treated better outside the jail,” said petitioner’s advocate Rashmi Kumar.
Waris submitted before the court that the petitioner has been put to dialysis for at least 8/9 times at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi but with the passage of time the kidney started malfunctioning further. The appellant virtually lost the vision of his left eye and the condition of the right eye has also started deteriorating, he said.
“Despite several attempts by the jail administration, I was told that doctors in RIMS were not ready to admit my uncles due to some unknown reasons,” submitted Md. Waris.
“I was also informed by some of his jail mates that his condition was not good who developed swellings all across his body,” he added.
He had also been earlier granted provisional bail for treatment on August 24, 2015 and surrendered before the court on time.
The murder took place on March 3, 2005 while an FIR was lodged on March 27, 2005 by Md Samsool, brother of the deceased.
A total of 8 witnesses were examined and finally Md Ashraf was sentenced life imprisonment on March 13, 2007 by a Fast Track court of Giridih. Since then, Ansari had been languishing in jail.