Relief for trans woman blamed for man’s suicide

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has granted anticipatory bail (ABA) to a transgender who was facing arrest after a woman filed a complaint against the accused claiming that her husband was in relationship with her and committed suicide due to her. The case is registered in Nashik.

Pooja More alias Pooja Yadav alias Guru Aai had filed application seeking pre-arrest bail after one Chaya More filed complaint that her husband Satish More committed suicide and Pooja is allegedly responsible for his extreme step.

According to the complaint, in January this year the applicant took Satish with her to Karnataka where they resided together for one month and thereafter the applicant fell ill so she allegedly demanded Rs 50 lakh from Satish.

Due to the accused's constant demands for money and Satish's inability to pay such a huge amount, the latter was facing tremendous pressure and hence he committed suicide on February 24 by hanging himself, according to the complaint.

Pooja’s lawyer however, contended that there is nothing on record to establish applicant was responsible for suicide.

Justice P.N. Deshmukh in his order observed that as per the police report the deceased left the complainant's house on April 19 and committed suicide on April 24 around 5.30 pm.

The judge noted that as per the report on April 24 Pooja had called Chaya at about 12.30 pm to enquire about Satish and this shows that there was no contact between Satish and Pooja from April 19 and hence it could not be said that Pooja was responsible for Satish's suicide.

According to the judge, the parents of the deceased also spoke about a demand of Rs 50 lakh, but their statement does not establish any abetment as required under the law by the applicant prior to the incident. Consid-ering all these facts, Justice granted ABA to Pooja on a personal bond of Rs 15,000.