The Supreme Court has granted bail to a dentist accused of killing his anaesthetist wife on the ground that the evidence does not fully establish the police’s claim of murder or abetment to suicide.

The apex court noted that there was no material to prove that accused Abhijit Pandey was harassing his wife Richa for dowry and had either administered atracurium besylate to her or abetted her suicide.

The bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by Abhijit challenging the refusal of the trial court and Madhya Pradesh High Court to grant him bail.

The defence had claimed that Richa had died by suicide after wrongly suspecting her husband of having an affair.

The bench took note of a suicide note, WhatsApp chats, screenshots and an audio recording of a quarrel between the couple to conclude that they “disclose persistent marital discord and emotional distress”.

It noted that the FIR was registered against the accused for abetment to suicide, but the post-mortem examination conducted on March 22 last year found that the deceased had not sustained any such injury, which could be said to have caused her death.

“…Prima facie it is found that she died of atracurium besylate injection, which is a medicine given as anaesthesia and the deceased herself was an anaesthetist and that the allegation of demand of money/dowry was not made in the first instance but was made in the subsequent case diary statements, as also for the reason that the appellant is not a hardened criminal.... we are inclined to allow the present appeal and release the appellant on bail,” the bench said.