Hemnath, the husband of late TV presenter and actor VJ Chitra, was granted bail by the Madras High Court on Monday.
Hemnath was arrested on charges of abetment to suicide of his wife. He was arrested by the Nazrethpettai Police on December 14, 2020 and was lodged in Ponneri Jail in Chennai.
The bail application came up for hearing before Justice V Bharathidasan.
The court was waiting for reports on nail clippings and telephonic voice analysis from the forensic department to decide on the bail application. On Monday, additional public prosecutor Prabhavathy said that the nail clipping analysis does not incriminate the accused.
While the accused pressed for bail since he has been under judicial custody for over 60 days, the court recorded the same and granted Hemnath bail.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB), which is currently investigating the case, told the court in its first report that Chitra was driven to suicide by her husband due to character assassination. The CCB had investigated 44 witnesses and concluded that Hemnath and Chitra had differences over her intimate scenes with other actors.
In its report in January, the Nazrethpettai police told the court that Chitra was driven to suicide due to the stress caused by Hemnath.
On December 9, 2020, Chitra was found hanging from a ceiling fan in the bathroom of a hotel at Nazrethpettai, in Chennai, where the couple was staying. Subsequently, Hemnath was arrested and booked under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code. The couple got engaged in August 2020 and were supposed to marry in February 2021. The couple had a registered marriage in October 2020.
Recommended
Following Chitra’s death, a mandatory probe was initiated by the Revenue Divisional Officer, who submitted a 16-page report after interrogating family and friends of Chitra and Hemnath. The probe ruled out harassment over dowry as a reason for the suicide. The case was later shifted to the CCB.
The post mortem report submitted earlier confirmed that there were only two injuries on Chitra’s body, one each on the cheek and chin. No other external or internal injuries were found. The doctors had said that that the injuries could be ligature marks from the silk saree she had worn.
Hemnath has been granted bail on the condition that he should appear before Anna Nagar police station in Madurai twice every day.