NEW DELHI: In the 2018 murder case of international motorbike racer Asbak Mon Tharoth, his wife, Sumera Parvez, who has been in prison for two years, has approached the Supreme Court seeking bail.
She sought bail on the grounds that she is a mother to a young child in urgent need of her care and affection.
The bail plea of Parvez, who has been accused of conspiring in the murder of her husband, was rejected by the Rajasthan High Court last year, following which she moved the apex court for bail.
The murder has attracted national attention not only due to the nature of the crime but also because of the complex web of personal relationships involved. The deceased, Tharoth, a prominent international biker and a participant in the prestigious ‘India Baja Off-Road Rally’, was allegedly killed in 2018 over a bitter personal vendetta.
The wife, in her bail plea in the apex court, claimed that the entire case against her was part of a deep-seated criminal conspiracy orchestrated by her late husband’s family.
"The allegations against me are a malicious attempt to frame me. There is the flimsy nature of the charges against me," her lawyers, Renjith Marar and Tarini K. Nayak, pointed out.
Commenting on the delay in registering the FIR (First Information Report) in 2020, after a staggering delay of two years from the date of the incident, Nayak pointed out that this was well beyond any reasonable timeframe for such a serious accusation.
"The delay in filing the FIR in 2020, even though the crime allegedly took place in 2018, raises serious doubts about the credibility of the entire investigation and the overall version of the prosecution," Nayak said.
The two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta, after hearing Parvez's bail plea, issued a notice to the Rajasthan government and sought its detailed reply to the plea within four weeks.
Parvez contended that the accusations - ranging from her failure to respond to a text message, to brief phone calls with one of the other accused, to a vague marital dispute with the deceased—are far from sufficient to establish any criminal intent or conspiracy. She asserted that none of these allegations come anywhere close to proving her involvement in her husband’s death.
Nayak argued that the allegations were driven by a personal vendetta, fuelled by the mother of the deceased.
Parvez claimed that the victim's mother, whose testimony forms the crux of the case against her, has a clear motive to manipulate the investigation - stemming from a tense and troubled relationship between her and her late husband.
"The investigation has been tainted by copy-pasted witness statements, further casting doubt on their authenticity. The key statements from the victim’s family and other witnesses are eerily similar, suggesting they were fabricated or coerced to support a predetermined narrative," the plea said.
The charges against her also face scrutiny due to the fact that the primary motive for the crime appears to be personal enmity between the deceased and one of the other accused, Sanjay Kumar. According to the chargesheet, this animosity dates back to a 2017 incident involving a racing competition between Sanjay and Tharoth, the plea claimed.