Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 11 Aug: The court has once again denied relief to Praveena Khatri, accused in the suicide case concerning her daughter-in-law, Srishti Kandari. The sessions court of Mahesh Chandra Kaushik today rejected her anticipatory bail application, observing that the gravity of allegations and the evidence emerging during investigation did not provide sufficient grounds for granting bail. Earlier, on 1 August, her anticipatory bail plea had also been dismissed.
During the hearing of the bail plea, the defence lawyers argued that the FIR against Praveena Khatri was based on incorrect facts. It was submitted that Srishti Kandari had married her son Saurabh Khatri in November 2025 and that the accused, a retired lecturer from the Education Department aged over 66 years, had never subjected her to dowry harassment. The plea also referred to the illness and subsequent death of her husband Manohar Khatri, who was in the fourth stage of brain cancer. He was admitted to Max Hospital in January 2026 and later referred to Delhi, where he remained under treatment till March. He passed away on 26 July 2026. According to the defence, Srishti allegedly hanged herself in her room on 29 July, days after her father-in-law’s death, and the family had never harassed her for dowry. It may also be reminded here that Srishti’s husband Saurabh Khatri is an officer posted at the Secretariat.
The prosecution strongly opposed the bail plea, alleging that Srishti was harassed by her husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law for dowry. It was stated that before her death she had sent a six-minute video to her mother via WhatsApp, in which she had accused her husband, sister-in-law and mother-in-law of subjecting her to harassment for six months and calling her inauspicious. Statements of her sister Ruchi, brother-in-law Pankaj Singh Rana and brother Devanshu alias Gunjan Khanduri were also recorded during investigation, which corroborated allegations of harassment and taunts over dowry demands.
The court noted that Srishti’s death occurred within seven years of marriage under abnormal circumstances in the matrimonial home. Considering the seriousness of allegations related to dowry death and the ongoing investigation, the court held the matter to be of grave nature and found no sufficient ground to grant anticipatory bail. Consequently, the application of Praveena Khatri was rejected.
Earlier, on 1 August, her interim anticipatory bail plea had been dismissed by the court of judge Monika Mittal, which also cited the seriousness of the case in denying any relief.
