Kerala HC rejects anticipatory bail plea of suspended IB officer in colleague’s suicide case

Kerala High Court building | Photo Credit: RK Nithin

The Kerala High Court on Monday (May 26, 2025) dismissed an anticipatory bail petition filed by Sukanth Suresh, the suspended IB officer in a case relating to suicide of his colleague Megha Madhusoodanan.

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas, while dismissing the anticipatory bail plea, observed that it transpires from the investigation so far conducted, at least prima facie, that the petitioner was in a position of control or dominance over the deceased and was repeatedly prompting her to take her life in order to get himself married to another woman. The petitioner had even coaxed the deceased to fix a date to take her life and repeatedly abused her as revealed from the chat history retrieved from one of the deleted accounts of her phone seized during the investigation.

The court also noted that the investigation revealed that the petitioner had wielded considerable power over the deceased and she has been transferring her entire salary from October 2024 into the petitioner’s account. A part of the WhatsApp chat retrieved from the deleted account from the phone of the deceased had revealed that that the petitioner had been harassing her mentally and exerting his dominance over her. The material collected so far by the police could only be a tip of an iceberg.

The court added that the circumstances did indicate that the petitioner’s relationship with her had some role in her taking the extreme step. In fact, in a case of this nature, if a suspect is protected by an order of a pre-arrest bail, it will impede and harm the investigation by restricting the unearthing of relevant materials. Therefore, the petitioner is not entitled to an anticipatory bail, the court held.

Published - May 26, 2025 11:49 am IST