On the 9th of July, the Allahabad High Court denied bail to one Shoeb Akhtar, accused of beheading a Hindu girl since she refused to convert to Islam after marrying co-accused Ajaj Ahmed, in 2020.
Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh found no compelling cause to release the accused on bail, taking into account the nature of the offence, the role assigned to applicant Shoeb Akhtar, and the stage of the trial. Notably, Shoeb Akhtar was booked by Chopan Police in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh under IPC sections 302 [punishment for murder] and 201 [causing the disappearance of evidence of an offence or giving false information to screen the offender].
According to the prosecution, accused Shoeb Akhtar decapitated Priya as she refused to convert to Islam after marrying co-accused and Akhtar’s friend Ajaj Ahmad.
As OpIndia reported back in 2020, accused Ajaj was unwilling to bring the Hindu victim to his home unless she converted to Islam. As the victim was reluctant to abandon her Hindu identity, Ajaj kept her in a rented room in the Obla area. Here, he was persistently pressuring the victim to convert to Islam. As the Hindu girl refused to convert, the angry Ajaj called upon another friend Shoeb Akhtar. The two Muslim youths carried Priya to a nearby forest area and killed her.
According to the horrifying details mentioned in the court order, the dead body of the Hindu girl with a chopped head was lying in the drain towards the forest on the western side of the road.
This is the second bail application moved by accused Shoeb Akhtar through his counsel Saurabh Pandey. He had earlier applied for bail through his counsel in January last year. The court, however, had rejected the plea then also “considering the facts that as per the postmortem report, death of the deceased was due to ante-mortem separation of neck from the body.”
The deceased victim’s sister Sharmila in her statement said that the Priya used to tell her how Ajaj Ahmad and his friend Shoeb Akhtar were pressurising her to convert to Islam even though she was not willing to do so. “Since deceased was not accepting Muslim religion, therefore she has been murdered by co-accused Ajaj Ahmad and present applicant- Shoeb Akhtar. Both the accused were apprehended together and on their disclosure, incriminating materials were recovered,” the court order reads.
Representing the State, an Additional Government Advocate opposed Akhtar’s second bail plea emphasising the gravity and heinous nature of the act and said that Ajaj gained bail by hiding the 24th January 2023 judgement that denied Shoeb’s first bail petition.
In addition, the State’s representative contended that a wrong argument was attributed to the State in the court order while granting bail to Ajaj. The Court stated in that ruling that ‘it is admitted fact that applicant is in jail since the last eight and a half years’.
The court found merit in the State’s argument that the court overlooked the order of rejection of the first bail plea filed by Shoeb Akhtar while granting bail to Ajaj Ahmad in October 2023.
“I also find substance in the submission of learned Additional Government Advocate that while passing the order dated 05.10.2023 of co-accused as noted above, the order dated 24.01.2023 has not been taken into consideration and wrong period of detention of the accused- Ajaj Ahmad @ Asif has been mentioned as noted above. Considering the gravity of offence, role assigned to the accused-applicant and the stage of trial, I do not find any good ground to release the applicant on bail. Accordingly, the bail application is rejected,” the court order reads.
Therefore, considering the gravity of the crime, the Court considered it appropriate to reject Shoeb Akhtar’s second bail application.
The court ordered Superintendent of Police, Sonbhadra, to ensure the presence of all remaining prosecution witnesses on the next trial date. Notably, out of 25 prosecution witnesses, 9 prosecution witnesses have already been examined before the trial court so far.
The court also ordered the trial court to expedite the trial without granting adjournment for either side.