The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a Pune man convicted of helping his wife commit suicide in 2012. The case involves allegations of abuse over many years, including an incident where he allegedly forced his wife and daughter to stand outside their home naked.
The man, Santosh Sudhakar Shilimkar, aged 32, an agricultural and sand contractor, was convicted in August 2024 by a Pune court under Sections 306 (decision to commit suicide) and 498A (cruelty to husband or his relatives) of the Indian Penal Code. The code. He was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
According to the prosecutor, Shilimkar repeatedly abused his wife, especially after the birth of their two daughters, one of whom needed frequent hospitalization due to health problems.
The turning point came on July 16, 2012, when a fight broke out after Shilimkar brought a pig and ordered his wife to cook it for his friends. During the argument, he is said to have forced his wife and their young daughter to stand naked outside the house all night.
It is said that the woman informed her family about the incident over the phone, crying. The next day, unable to bear the physical and emotional abuse, he jumped into a well near their home and took his own life.
During the trial, the sessions court found Shilimkar guilty based on circumstantial evidence and sentenced him to concurrent terms of imprisonment.
However, his lawyer, Satyavrat Joshi, denied the conviction during the appeal, saying that there was no direct evidence of abuse or intent to drive the victim to kill himself. Joshi pointed out the inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case, highlighting hearsay evidence and the absence of a suicide note.
Despite objections from Additional Public Prosecutor Manisha Tidke, who emphasized the seriousness of the charges, Judge RN Laddha of the Bombay High Court granted bail to Shilimkar.
The court noted that an appeal against the conviction was unlikely to be heard soon and cited Supreme Court precedents that advocated a more liberal approach to the imposition of fixed-term convictions pending appeal.
The court also noted that the allegations and evidence do not present an unusual circumstance that warrants continued detention during the appeal. It suspended Shilimkar’s sentence and granted him bail on a personal bond of Rs 25,000, with surety conditions.