Jharkhand High Court Grants Bail Woman Fed Mother In Law Poisoned Samosa

In an unusual case where a woman was arrested last year after she allegedly forced-fed her mother-in-law “poisoned samosas” and killed her, the Jharkhand High Court recently granted her bail.

Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary was hearing the plea of the woman who had been in jail since August 21, 2025.

The prosecution alleged that she laced the samosa with poison and forced fed her at around 8 pm on May 21, 2025. According to the FIR, the mother-in-law began vomiting when she had gone off to bed, following which the victim’s husband suspected foul play. The following morning, the FIR stated, the woman lost consciousness and succumbed to poisoning at around 4 pm on May 22 at the community health centre in Jharkhand’s Khunti district.

The daughter-in-law was booked for charges of murder, causing hurt by means of poison of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, after the victim’s husband filed a complaint with the local police station.

The woman and her mother-in-law were stated to have been involved in a domestic dispute for some months before the latter’s death, aside from frequently fighting with each other.

Advocate Amit Kumar, appearing for the accused, refuted the allegations against her client, calling them false. The lawyer argued that the woman had been in judicial custody for about a year, since August 21, 2025. It was also submitted that the post-mortem report, which is the opinion regarding the cause of death, had still not been received from the forensic science laboratory.

The high court released the accused woman on bail with the condition that she would not “annoy or disturb” the person who had filed the FIR, that is, the father-in-law or the other witness of the case, in any manner during the trial of the case.

The court ordered that the woman would co-operate with the trial of the case and would give her mobile phone number and a photocopy of the Aadhaar Card to the court with an undertaking that she would not change the mobile phone number during the trial of the case.

The accused had initially sought anticipatory bail from a sessions court, contending that though the FIR named her, she was framed in the case and that her father-in-law had registered the case against her due to a family dispute.

The prosecution contended that there was a direct allegation against the woman and that the investigation was at an early stage. On August 4, 2025, the trial court underlined the “seriousness and gravity” of the offences and rejected the woman’s plea.

The woman was subsequently arrested, and she applied for bail claiming innocence. She said her mother-in-law had died due to natural causes, but owing to a family dispute, the incident was “given the colour” of poisoning.

Her lawyer argued that the victim’s postmortem report did not indicate that she had been poisoned. The trial court, however, again rejected the bail plea and said the daughter-in-law’s involvement in the alleged crime cannot be ruled out.