The Bombay high court on Friday granted bail to Pawankumar Gehlon, the accused arrested in connection with the acid attack incident on Preeti Rathi, by accepting that he was arrested solely on the basis of “suspicion.” Even Rathi’s father Amarsingh had later told the police that Gehlon was not involved in the attack.
Rathi succumbed to severe lung damage on June 1 at the Bombay Hospital, a month after the attack on May 2 at Bandra Terminus.
Justice Sadhana Jadhav accepted Gehlon’s plea that he had been falsely implicated in the case and also observed that he had inquired after Rathi’s health with her sister Tannu four days after the incident. He was then granted bail on a personal bond of ` 15,000. The police had also questioned and later released a person Satyam while another person Ankur remains untraceable. Gehlon and the two live in the same locality as Rathi in Haryana. Earlier during the investigations, Rathi had suspected the involvement of the three based on the sketches prepared by the police.
The court also observed that Rathi, who was communicating via notes, had later specifically written that Gehlon could not be involved since they had not been touch for two years. “She also claimed that she had no relationships or enmity with anybody,” said Justice Jadhav.