SRINAGAR: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has granted bail to three women accused in a murder case arising out of a violent clash over pasture land in Anantnag’s Larnoo area, holding that the trial court failed to properly consider the statutory safeguard available to women under the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In a detailed judgment pronounced on December 29, 2025, Justice Rahul Bharti allowed Bail Application No 145 of 2024 filed by Saleema, Reshma and Rubina, all residents of Cheri Panzgam in Kokernag. The three women are among fourteen accused persons booked in connection with the death of Ali Mohammad Dar, who succumbed to injuries allegedly sustained during an assault on July 19, 2023.
The case originates from FIR No 21 of 2023 registered at Police Station Larnoo on the complaint of Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Dar, son of the deceased. According to the prosecution’s version, a dispute erupted between two neighbouring families over the construction of a cattle shed on pasture land, locally known as behak. The complaint alleged that later that night, a group of accused persons, armed with sticks, forcibly entered the complainant’s house, damaged property and assaulted Ali Mohammad Dar, leaving him unconscious. He died thirteen days later, following which Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code was added to the case.
After investigation, police filed a charge sheet against fourteen accused, nine of whom were in custody at the time. The three women petitioners were arrested in January and May 2024 and have remained in judicial custody as undertrials. Their bail pleas were earlier rejected by the Principal Sessions Judge, Anantnag, in October and November 2024, primarily on the ground that the stage of the trial did not warrant their release.
Setting aside that reasoning, the High Court observed that the trial court had overlooked the proviso to Section 437(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which specifically requires courts to consider bail for women accused even in non-bailable offences. Justice Bharti noted that while the proviso does not mandate bail as a matter of right, it does oblige courts to meaningfully apply a different lens in cases involving women.
The High Court said the allegations in the FIR and the charge sheet were broadly worded and did not attribute specific individual roles to the women accused, particularly in relation to the fatal injuries. It also took note of the fact that the alleged weapon of offence was sticks, and that the precise involvement of the women accused in the assault was not clearly delineated.
The court further recorded the personal circumstances of the petitioners, including the fact that one of them is a breastfeeding mother, that all three have young minor children, and that the husband of one petitioner is also in custody. The judgment also referred to the death of one petitioner’s minor son during her incarceration, noting that both parents were unable to attend even his burial.
By the time the High Court heard the bail plea, several prosecution witnesses, including eye-witnesses, had already been examined, a factor the court said reduced the risk of interference with the trial.
Allowing the petition, the court directed that the three women be released on bail on furnishing personal and surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each. The court imposed conditions that the petitioners shall not leave the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir without prior permission of the trial court and shall not engage in any act that could prejudice the ongoing trial, warning that any such conduct would invite cancellation of bail.
The trial in the case is continuing before the Principal Sessions Judge, Anantnag.
