Noida dowry death case: Court rejects bail pleas of Nikki’s husband & in-laws | Noida News
NOIDA: A chief judicial magistrate’s court on Thursday rejected bail pleas filed by the husband and in-laws of Nikki Bhati, who died of severe burns last month after an alleged attack over dowry harassment. Nikki’s husband Vipin Bhati, his brother Rohit and parents – Daya and Satveer – were arrested after being accused by Nikki’s sister Kanchan of setting the 28-year-old on fire at the family’s Kasna home on Aug 21. Nikki succumbed to injuries while she was being shifted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital later in the day.
Advocate Amit Bhati Bodaki, who filed the bail pleas on behalf of the four accused, submitted CCTV footage, purportedly showing Vipin outside the family’s house at the time of the incident. He argued that Nikki died after catching fire from a cylinder blast. Udham Singh, the counsel for Kanchan, countered this argument, saying that police had not found any evidence of a cylinder blast. Singh said the defence was trying to mislead the court. “The court agreed there was no ground for bail and rejected their application,” Singh said on Thursday. Chief judicial magistrate RK Sagar noted the gravity of the allegations and said there were no grounds for relief for the accused at this stage. “The allegation against the accused is of murdering the sister of the plaintiff by pouring inflammable substance on her along with the co-accused. The case is session triable, non-bailable and of serious nature. There are no sufficient grounds for bail in the facts and circumstances of the case. Therefore, the bail application is rejected,” the order read. Defence lawyer Bodaki told TOI that he will now file a bail plea before a sessions court. “We will be going to the sessions court. We will present the video evidence in the case, including the CCTV video from across the home as well as the video made by the deceased’s sister, in which she is heard saying — ‘what have you done’,” the advocate said. Kanchan, who lived in the same Kasna house and is married to Vipin’s younger brother Rohit, had filed the police complaint, alleging that Vipin set Nikki on fire after years of harassment and abuse over dowry demands. An Aug 21-video captured by Kanchan showed Nikki up in flames as she stumbled down a staircase. But, since the FIR, there have been a series of clashing claims and videos circulating on social media about what happened on the day Nikki died. One of them is CCTV footage from the Kasna street where the Bhatis live. It shows a man, believed to be Vipin, standing outside the house at the time Nikki suffered the injuries. In another video, a woman is heard asking Nikki, “Yeh kya kar liya (what have you done)?”. Another clip showed Nikki’s mother-in-law Daya separating her from Vipin during a fight and slapping her son after he strikes the 28-year-old. Adding to speculation about the case was also the medico-legal form submitted to police by Fortis Hospital, where Nikki was initially taken. It said she suffered a “burn at home due to a cooking cylinder blast”, a statement that hospital officials later said was from information given by family members who got Nikki admitted. But a police officer told TOI on Thursday they have not found any indication of a cylinder blast at the family’s Kasna home. They suspect the inflammable liquid on Nikki was nail polish remover, which was seized from the house and sent to a forensics laboratory. So far, cops at the Kasna police station, where the FIR was registered, are yet to file a charge sheet in the case. “Kanchan’s detailed statement is yet to be recorded as she has cited medical issues. Reports of electronic evidence are still pending, and all angles are being thoroughly checked,” a senior investigator said. Kanchan could not be reached for comment till Thursday evening. But her father Bhikari Singh said she was unwell and asked why cops needed to question Kanchan. Kanchan has been living at her parents’ house with her daughter and Nikki’s son. “She (Kanchan) is the complainant. Police have not asked us for questioning so far. They have only taken the statement of Nikki’s son,” the father said.
