Pune: Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Lata Hagawane, wife of expelled NCP functionary Rajendra Hagawane, their son, Sushil, and family friend Nilesh Chavan in the alleged dowry death of their daughter-in-law Vaishnavi (24) in their house at Bhukum on May 16, 2025.“The role attributed to accused Nos. 2 (mother-in-law Lata), 5 (brother-in-law Sushil) and 6 (Chavan) prima facie shows that there is nothing incriminating or anything which is in the nature of an instigation due to any act committed by them, so as to drive the victim to take the inevitable step,” the bench of Justice Milind N Jadhav said.The bench also said that it cannot get carried away by ‘the emotions of the complainant (Vaishnavi’s father) as exhibited by the prosecution counsel’ but must consider the entire material placed before it holistically.“There is no doubt that the victim’s body had several injuries, but it needs to be considered that the same may point the finger towards her husband who was present in the house on the day of the incident and not towards applicants before me i.e. accused No. 2 who was not present in the house, or for that matter accused No. 5 who was living separately, and accused No. 6 who was friend of victim’s sister-in-law and who has not even been named in the FIR,” Justice Jadhav said.Vaishnavi was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her marital home. The postmortem report confirmed injury marks on the body, giving way to speculation as to whether Vaishnavi died by suicide or was murdered. The case created a major furore across the state due to allegations that Vaishnavi was being subjected to dowry harassment and domestic violence.Based on her father Anil Kaspate’s complaint, the Bavdhan police on May 17, 2025, arrested Vaishnavi’s husband, Shashank, mother-in-law, Lata, and sister-in-law Karishma Hagawane. Later, they arrested Rajendra and Sushil and Nilesh Chavan, who is facing charges of keeping Vaishnavi’s minor son in his custody for two days. Shashank, Rajendra and Karishma remain in jail.The court referred to the WhatsApp chat conversations between Vaishnavi and Shashank (accused No. 1) and noted, “It cannot be said that the victim was a person who would succumb to continuous physical assault as alleged, since she was extremely vocal and responsive which is prima facie evident from the WhatsApp messages with her husband when read. This coupled with the fact that none of the family members of first informant (Kaspates) ever raised any complaint or filed a complaint with regard to alleged mental torture and harassment suffered by her at this prima facie stage endures to the benefit of applicants before me.” It further noted that none of the chats and messages mentioned the accused Nos. 5 and 6.
