Shillong, April 28: The court has set four conditions while granting bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi.
The bail order by DR.Kharbteng, additional DC (Judicial), Shillong, said that the court is convinced that the petitioner has been able to make out a case of not having been effectively communicated the grounds of arrest upon her arrest.
“Accordingly, as has been observed in the case of Vihaan Kumar (supra) at para 26 and the judgment of our own High Court in Labius Arengh (supra) the petitioner is entitled to be released on bail”, the court said.
The conditions
“The petitioner is hereby directed to be released on bail on the following conditions:
(i) That she shall not abscond or tamper with the evidence or witnesses;
(ii) That she shall attend court on every date fixed;
(iii) That she shall not leave the jurisdiction of this court, except with due permission; and
(iv) That she shall execute a personal bond of Rs 50,000 (Rupees fifty thousand) only with two surety of like amount to the satisfaction of this court.
Application is allowed and disposed off”.
The court said that when the FIR was registered, the sections under which the case has been registered against the accused is u/s 103(1)/238(a)/309(6)/3(6) BNS.
The court perused annexure 8 which is a prepared format under the heading “Intimation of Grounds of Arrest” with a checklist of accusations/charges said to have been committed by the accused person.
“In the said format presented to the petitioner, none of the check boxes has been ticked to indicate the said charges against the petitioner. Even the sections of law referred to therein is Sohra PS Case No. 7/2025 u/sb403(1)/238(a)/309(6)/3(6) BNS. However, the case has been registered u/s 103(1)/238(a)/309(6)/3(6) BNS. A bare perusal of the Intimation of grounds of arrest would indicate that the petitioner was not informed about the offence u/s 103(1) BNS. Though it has been argued that this is a clerical error, however such error cannot occur in all documents. Infact, in all documents pertaining to Sonam Raghuvanshi, from the check list for justification of arrest, memo of arrest, inspection memo, intimation of rights of the arrested person, extract of case dairy, the sections referred to in all the documents is Sohra PS Case No. 7/2025 u/s 403(1)/238(a)/309(6)/3(6) BNS. In none of the documents has the petitioner been intimated that she is arrested for the offence u/s 103(1) BNS. Even in the formats of the intimation of grounds of arrest it is observed that specific facts constituting the offence has not been communicated to the accused person”.
According to the order, going by the intimation of grounds of arrest presented to the petitioner, there is no indication that the charges against her has been communicated to her.
“This shows that sufficient knowledge of facts constituting grounds of arrest, has not been effectively communicated to the petitioner herein in clear terms. Therefore, it can be said that prejudice has been caused to her as far as her defense is concerned. Moreover, there is nothing on record to show that the petitioner was represented by a counsel at the time when she was first produced before the court at Ghazipur, whereby this plea could have been raised by her”, the court said.
The case was posted for order on April 27 though the bail please was heard last week.
The bail application was filed by the accused Sonam under section 483 BNSS through her lawyer and legal aide S Rana,
Special prosecutor KC Gautam appeared for the prosecution.
